Champion and sire Celtic Swing dies at 18

Celtic Swing, the European champion who sired Takeover Target and Six Perfections, has died in Italy at age 18, according to Racing Post. The Damister horse was euthanized after developing colitis.

Celtic Swing stood his first season at the Societa Allevamento Besnate in Varese, Italy, after stints at England’s National Stud and the Irish National Stud, as well as serving shuttle duty to Swettenham Stud in Australia.

A European champion at 2, Celtic Swing won the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy by 12 lengths. The following year, he finished second in the 2000 Guineas before winning the French Derby.

Takeover Target is his best-known son. The gelding was the 2006 champion sprinter in Australia, where he won six Group 1 races between 2004 and 2009, and in England, where he won the 2006 King’s Stand Stakes, then a Group 2. Takeover Target also won Japan’s Group 1 Sprinters Stakes that season.

Celtic Swing’s daughter Six Perfections, a French champion at both 2 and 3, won the Breeders’ Cup Mile in 2003. She came back to finish third in the race the following year.

Celtic Swing’s other group-winning progeny include Italian classic winner Rattle and Hum and classic-placed Freemusic.