Peaks and Valleys, Canadian champion, dies at 20

Peaks and Valleys, who as a 3-year-old was named Canada’s Horse of the Year in 1995, has died at Gardiner Farms in Canada of the “infirmities of old age,” according to his breeder, Pin Oak Stable. Peaks and Valleys was 20.

A son of Mt. Livermore out of the Green Dancer mare Strike a Balance, Peaks and Valleys won Canada’s richest race, the Molson Export Million at Woodbine Racecourse in Toronto, during his 3-year-old campaign. He had earlier finished second in the Col. R. S. McLaughlin Stakes, also at Woodbine.

In the U.S. as a 3-year-old, Peaks and Valleys won the Grade 1 Meadowlands Cup, the Grade 2 Illinois Derby, and the Grade 3 Derby Trial. In addition to being named Canada’s Horse of the Year, he was also named champion 3-year-old in the country.

Peaks and Valleys was retired during his 4-year-old campaign with a record of 16-9-3-2 and earnings of $1,589,270. He first went to stud at Pin Oak in Kentucky, but he was moved to Gardiner Farms in 2006, where he most recently stood for $4,000.

At stud, Peaks and Valleys sired Dollar Bill, who won the Grade 2 Jockey Club Stakes and placed in nine other Grade 1 or Grade 2 stakes.

Peaks and Valleys will be returned to Pin Oak and buried there, the farm said.