Champion High Chaparral euthanized at 15

High Chaparral, a classic winner in England and Ireland, a two-time champion turf horse in North America, and a dual-hemisphere stallion for Coolmore, was euthanized during exploratory colic surgery due to a perforated intestine, the farm announced Sunday through its Twitter account.

The 15-year-old son of Sadler’s Wells was being attended to at Fethard Equine Hospital in Co. in Tipperary, Ireland. He was about to stand his 11th season at Coolmore Ireland for an advertised fee of $36,688 (30,000 Euros) after completing the Southern Hemisphere breeding season at the operation’s Australian farm.

Bred in Ireland by Sean Coughlan, High Chaparral was purchased by the Coolmore partnership for about $395,226 at the 2000 Tattersalls September yearling sale and was put into training with Aidan O’Brien.

He started fast, winning the English Group 1 Racing Post Trophy during his 2-year-old campaign, then returned the following year to win the 2002 Epsom Derby, then the Irish Derby, preceded by the Group 3 Derby Trial Stakes in Ireland. Following a third-place finish in the French Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, High Chaparral was shipped to the U.S., where he won the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Arlington Park and earned the Eclipse Award for champion turf male.

High Chaparral continued racing at a high level as a 4-year-old, taking the Group 1 Ireland The Food Island Champion Stakes and Group 2 Royal Whip Stakes and finishing third once again in the Arc. He returned to the U.S. for the 2003 Breeders’ Cup Turf, this time at Santa Anita, where he finished first in a dead heat with Johar to secure another Eclipse Award.

High Chaparral retired with 10 wins in 13 starts for earnings of $5,331,213, with eight career graded/group stakes victories.

High Chaparral retired to Coolmore Ireland for the 2004 breeding season, where he has become the sire of eight crops of racing age with combined progeny earnings of more than $62.9 million.

Australian champion So You Think, a multiple Group 1 winner in three countries, is High Chaparral’s most prominent runner. His 37 graded/group stakes winners also include 2014 New Zealand Horse of the Year and Australian champion Dundeel and Group 1 winners Toronado, Shoot Out, Descardo, Monaco Consul, and High Jinx.

High Chaparral’s North American triumphs at stud include the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Wrote, as well as the Grade 1 winners Wigmore Hall and Redwood.

At least eight sons of High Chaparral stand at stud around the world. Wrote, who stands at Northwest Stud in Florida is the only one advertised in North America, while his sons in Europe include So You Think (who shuttles to Australia for the Southern Hemisphere season), Toronado, Tai Chi, and Magadan. In the Southern Hemisphere, High Chaparral is represented by Golden Sword, Monaco Consul, and Redwood.