Eltish euthanized at age 20

Eltish, the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up who stood this year at Mole’s Hill Farm in Millerton, N.Y., was euthanized last week due to neurological complications, the farm announced Friday.

The Cox’s Ridge horse was 20 and most recently was advertised with a $3,000 stud fee.

A Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed runner for Juddmonte Farms in England, Eltish came to the United States permanently in 1996 and became a graded-placed runner here with trainer Bobby Frankel. In addition to his second to eventual juvenile champion Timber Country in the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, he also was second in the 1996 Iselin and third in the 1996 Arlington Citation Challenge Invitational Stakes and the 1997 San Pasqual Handicap. He also ran in the Kentucky Derby in 1995, finishing sixth. He retired with 5 wins, 5 seconds, and 5 thirds in 25 lifetime starts and earned $704,186.

He went on to sire such runners as multiple stakes winner Silk Ridge, graded winners She’s All Eltish and Barbara O’Brien, Puerto Rican champion import Kud’zu Magic, and multiple stakes-placed Nicole’s Miss El, among other stakes performers. Eltish got his start at stud in Florida, but in 2005 Gary Olsen bought him from Live Oak Stud and moved him to New York.

Mole’s Hill Farm said Eltish is buried at Olsen’s home farm, “high on a hill overlooking his valley.”