NEWS
Eclipse Award winner Brown Bess dies
Posted: Saturday, July 16, 2011 2:39 PM
by Ron Parker
Suzanne Pashayan's Calbourne Farm homebred Brown Bess, 1989 Eclipse Award-winner as champion turf female, was euthanized at Harris Farms in Coalinga, California on July 15 due to complications from colic.
The *Petrone mare was 29.
"I knew this day would come," Pashayan said. "With her advanced age it was not a difficult decision as with this consideration it was in her best interest. There will never be another like her again."
Brown Bess remains the only Eclipse Award-winner based in Northern California who raced exclusively in her home state, winning 16 of 36 starts while earning $1,300,920.
Brown Bess was a product of Pashayan's faith in the Duchess Doreen line as part of her Calbourne Stable and began her career as a three-year-old at Bay Meadows Race Course, winning her first race at the Santa Rosa Fair as a four-year-old in her third career starts.
After Brown Bess made her first four career starts on dirt, Pashayan asked trainer Chuck Jenda to try her on turf and she responded with a victory when she could have been claimed for $50,000.
Known as 'Mighty Mite' due to her small size (she generally weighed just 850 pounds), Bess was enormously popular in Northern California, but the highlight of her career came in 1989 when, as a seven-year-old, she closed out that campaign with a victory in the Yellow Ribbon Invitational Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park.
The victory not only cemented her Eclipse Award, it provided respect for the diminutive mare in Southern California as track announcer Trevor Denman indicated in his call near the end of the Yellow Ribbon.
"It's a one-horse race," Denman called, "and that one horse is Brown Bess. What a magnificent mare!"
Despite visiting a number of Kentucky stallions as potential matings for Bess, Pashayan chose to remain loyal to California, and ended her broodmare career in 2002 after producing one winner from six starters.
"Generally I do not like breeding mares after they turn 20," she said. "It's just a policy that I have always stuck to. I feel by then they have had enough."
Still, the motherly instincts never left Bess who, in 2004, took a newborn calf away from its mother and treated it as her own, not letting its mother near it.
"I wish Suzanne would have bred Bess a few more times before she retired her," John Harris said. "I still think she could have come up with a major horse."
Brown Bess was buried at the Harris Farms River Ranch property.
Ron Parker is a Thoroughbred Times contributing writer
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: Handicapper, Inglewood, CA on July 17, 2011 at 08:40 PM
R.I.P. my friend, you gave me alot of thrill's, your one of the best to come out of the Bay Area, you may be gone but you soon won't be forgotten.......... JMO <\_~
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Posted by: Bob, SF, CA on July 17, 2011 at 07:13 PM
It is like losing a friend. I saw this mare race and win several times. Another one from the golden age is gone. Does anyone know if Moment To Buy is still around?
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Posted by: dave, oakland, CA on July 17, 2011 at 01:43 AM
I'm so sorry. I feel like I've been punched in the gut. At her best she was as good as any turf mare who ever raced at a distance of ground. She made us so proud of NoCal racing. I had only just gotten involved with Horse Racing during the '87 season (Alysheba) and Northern California Racing still had plenty of life at that time. Chuck Jenda was a leading trainer and he seemed to push all the right buttons with "our" Brown Bess. She really was "ours", too, Northern California racing has always had a bit of a chip on its shoulder, but here was a mare that we could put our faith in and she never disapointed. It wasn't too long before Casual Lies broke his maiden at Santa Rosa and gave us more great memories. Or King Glorious. Or Slew Of Damascus. It's too bad that our racing product fell into greedy hands costing us Bay Meadows (with all of its incredible history), some of my happiest moments in life were on that BM infield where one could enjoy a picnic-like atmosphere with the best seats in the house watching our heroes from every conceivable angle. You could walk to any part of the track and catch the action. That's what live racing is all about, Bay Meadows was an epic theatre that can never be replaced. Brown Bess will always be remembered by those of us who lived and breathed NoCal Racing. Thank you Brown Bess and thank you, Suzanne Pashayan for treating her so well.
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Posted by: Deb, Oakland, CA on July 17, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Always enjoyed her races in N.CAL. It proved good horses could exist at GGF and the fairs.
RIP, Bess!
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Posted by: George, Las Vegas, NV on July 16, 2011 at 11:27 PM
One of the ones!
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