ARROGATE DIES AGED SEVEN

Juddmonte Farms has suffered the shock loss of its young stallion Arrogate, whose death was announced yesterday. The son of Unbridled’s Song was put down yesterday morning after a battle to save him following an illness that began last week. It is still unclear what the illness was and a post-mortem is being carried out. The stud announced that the seven-year-old had a very successful covering season this year until last week, when his duties were suspended due to a suspected sore neck. Later in the week, he fell to the ground in his stall and efforts to get him back up proved unsuccessful. He was transported to the Hagyard Clinic under the care of Dr Bob Hunt and Dr Nathan Slovis, with Dr Steve Reed representing the insurance company.

They worked tirelessly with the staff from the Hagyard Clinic eliminating all the obvious causes and performing all available tests, including spinal tap evaluation, x-ray, ultrasound, CT Scan and many blood tests. Unfortunately, Arrogate was still unable to stand after four days when serious secondary health issues set in and the decision was made to euthanase him.

Bred by Clearsky Farms and purchased by Juddmonte for $560,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Arrogate was a son of the Stakes-winning Distorted Humor mare Bubbler, whose dam was Gr.3-placed and whose grandam is the six-time Gr.1 winner Meadow Star (Meadowlake). Unraced at two, the Bob Baffert-trained colt finished third on his debut in April 2016 and then set up a sequence of five victories between early June and early November, culminating in successes in August’s Gr.1 Travers Stakes by 13½ lengths (in a track record time) and then a defeat of California Chrome and others in the Gr.1 Breeders’ cup Classic. He then won his first two outings at four, January’s Gr.1 Pegasus World Cup (in a new course record) and March’s Gr.1 Dubai World Cup, and he retired that autumn with a North American earnings record of $17,422,600.

He covered excellent books of mares in his first two seasons, including 46 Gr.1 winners or producers, and his first-crop foals averaged $311,000 at the major Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland sales. Arrogate has three crops, has his first yearlings to present to the sales this year and his physical and personality traits are passing very strongly to his offspring.