RIP Alysheba

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Sir_Galahad · #1 Post by **Sir_Galahad** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:12 am

The 1988 Horse of the Year was euthanized late Friday night at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Ky., after injuring his right hind leg that afternoon in a fall in his stall at the Kentucky Horse Park. A chronic degenerative spinal condition was extremely painful and prevented Alysheba from standing unaided. He died at age 25 five months after returning from Saudi Arabia, where he spent the previous eight years at stud for King Abdullah. He was buried Saturday morning outside the Horse Park's Hall of Champions. He and 20-year-old Lil E. Tee were put down only nine days apart, leaving Strike the Gold, at 21, as the oldest living Derby winner.

In the past 21 years, nine Triple Crown hopefuls fell short in the Belmont Stakes, and Alysheba was the first, finishing a distant fourth to Bet Twice. "There was no doubt in my mind he was going to win the Triple Crown," Van Berg said, and McCarron blamed himself for a bad ride.

The Kentucky-bred son of Alydar and Bel Sheba won nine Grade I stakes, including the 1988 Breeders' Cup Classic in near darkness at muddy Churchill Downs. He retired in 1989 to stud in Kentucky with 11 wins and eight seconds in 26 races and earnings of $6,679,242, then the world record.

In 1987, America's Race could have become a disastrous pileup if not for the agility of the colt later called "America's Horse." In midstretch, with 15 rivals behind him, second-place Alysheba nearly fell after clipping heels with front-running Bet Twice. Alysheba recovered immediately and won the Kentucky Derby, the breakthrough triumph in his Hall of Fame career.

Not until he saw the replay did jockey Chris McCarron realize how close they had come to going down.

"He stumbled so quick and got up so quick that Chris said before he knew it, they were back running again," Alysheba's trainer, Jack Van Berg, said last year on HRTV. "[Trainer] Willard Proctor said, 'Most horses going a mile and a quarter are looking for a place to lie down. Alysheba laid down, got back up, and still beat 'em."'