by Steve Bailey

Multiple Grade 2 winner Shakis (Ire) was euthanized on Friday after taking a bad step following a workout at Hollywood Park.

The eight-year-old Machiavellian horse had just completed his final move before a planned career-ending start in the Citation Handicap (G1) at the Inglewood, California, track on November 28.

The Shadwell Stable homebred, who is out of the Nashwan mare Tawaaded (Ire), was scheduled to begin stud duties in 2009.

“He broke his hind leg pulling up,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said from New York. “He had just worked four furlongs in [:49.20] and took a bad step. He was in really bad shape so they had to put him down.

“It’s really unfortunate because my brother [assistant trainer Neal McLaughlin] was just out there last week and said he loved the surface and was in great shape; just moving great and ready to go.”

Shakis won the Bernard Baruch Handicap (G2) at Saratoga Race Course each of the past two years, two of his seven wins from 35 career starts over seven seasons. He earned $860,532.

Following this year’s Bernard Baruch, Shakis finished third behind Big Brown and Proudinsky (Ger) in the Monmouth Stakes on September 13, second to Thorn Song in the Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes (G1) on October 4, and last of 11 behind Goldikova (Ire) in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) on October 25 at Santa Anita Park.

“It’s really sad for all of us at Shadwell and in the McLaughlin stable because he’d been around for quite a while and had brought us all so much excitement and joy,” McLaughlin said. “He was a very professional racehorse that really loved being out on the track.

“Luckily, these things don’t happen very often, but you know it’s possible. The highs and lows are extreme and you have to try to stay in the middle. You deal with it and move on.”

Steve Bailey is deputy news editor of Thoroughbred Times