Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Success Express dies in Australia

Success Express, winner of the 1987 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, died at Vinery Stud in Australia at age 30.

The son of Hold Your Peace was bred in Kentucky by Tri Star Stable, and sold to trainer D. Wayne Lukas for $150,000 at the 1986 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale. He was out of the multiple stakes-winning Dancing Champ mare Au Printemps, who also produced Canadian champion Charlie Barley and Grade 1 winner Greenwood Lake.

He raced for Eugene Klein, and won four of eight starts as a juvenile, including stakes at Canterbury Park and Louisiana Downs, prior to a victory over the likes of Regal Classic and Tejano in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Hollywood Park.

Success Express returned at three with third-place finishes in the Grade 3 San Vicente Stakes and the Grade 2 San Rafael at Santa Anita, before shipping to Aqueduct to run second in the Grade 2 Bay Shore Stakes. However, he went winless that year and retired at the end of his sophomore campaign with four wins in 17 starts for earnings of $835,359.

Success Express was retired to Heytesbury Stud in Keysbrook, Western Australia for the 1989 breeding season, and stood there until 1991, when he was moved to Trelawney Stud in New Zealand for two seasons.

He was then purchased by Australian breeder Peter Moran and relocated to Widden Stud in New South Wales in 1993. The horse stood at several other farms around Australia until finally ending up at Vinery in 2004. He was pensioned from stud duty two years later and spent the rest of his life at Vinery.

In total, Success Express sired 18 crops, with 423 winners and combined progeny earnings of more than $21.6 million.

His runners are led by Coogee Walk, New Zealand’s champion sprinter of 1998. Other high-level offspring of Success Express include Golden Slipper winner Polar Success, Group 1 winners Why Be, Savannah Success, Mossman, Quick Star, and Al Akbar, Group 2 winners Staging, Flash Trick, and Ferragamo and Group 3 winners Electrifying, Patterns, and Country Lane.

The most prominent son of Success Express at stud is Mossman, also a Vinery resident, whose 22 graded/group stakes winners includes 2014 Golden Slipper winner Mossfun.