Breeders' Cup winner, succesful broodmare Twilight Ridge dead

Twilight Ridge, winner of 1985 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, died April 2 at owner Mike Rutherford's Manchester Farm near Lexington, Ky. The daughter of Cox's Ridge was 30.

"Twilight Ridge ... was 30 years old and in excellent health until the last month," Manchester Farm stated in a release. "She was a wonderful producer as well as a great race mare. ... Twilight Ridge will be missed at Manchester Farm as she was a very special lady, always having the sweetest disposition with other horses and people. Twilight Ridge will be buried at her home, Manchester Farm."

Twilight Ridge won two of her first three starts, including the Grade 3 Astoria Stakes, before capturing the 1985 Juvenile Fillies at Aqueduct, defeating stablemate Family Style, that year's eventual 2-year-old filly champion. She concluded her season with a third-place effort in the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes.

As a 3-year-old, Twilight Ridge finished second in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks and was also runner-up in the Grade 3 Las Virgenes Stakes. She concluded her career in early 1987 with four wins from 15 starts for earnings of $743,083. Rutherford purchased her for $1,325,000 million that fall at Fasig-Tipton, out of a dispersal of owner Eugene Klein's stock.

Twilight Ridge went on to produce nine winners from as many starters. Her notable offspring include Grade 2 winner La Rosa, the dam of Grade 3 winners Taittinger Rose and Le Bernardin; Louisiana Derby runner-up Game Coin; and multiple stakes winner and stakes producer Daylight Ridge. Two other daughters, Ridgefield and In Twilight, are the dams of stakes-placed winners.

Twilight Ridge was pensioned in 2007.

Out of the unraced Quibu mare Waving Sky, Florida-bred Twilight Ridge was a half-sister to stakes winner Luminous Power. It is the family of Grade 1 winner Crested Wave, as well as graded stakes winners Tri Jet, Wavy Waves, and Recommended List.