Classic winner Shadeed dead

English classic winner Shadeed, a sire of European champions, has died at age 23 of complications from an undisclosed illness.

Gainsborough Stud manager Allen Kershaw said the stallion died Nov. 13 and has been buried at the farm near Lexington, Ky., where he resided for 19 years.

Cherry Valley Farm and the Gamely Corp. bred Shadeed in Kentucky by mating Nijinsky II and the winning Damascus mare Continual. Racing for Sheikh Maktoum al Maktoum, Shadeed won four stakes in 1985. Foremost among those was the 2000 Guineas, but he also captured the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, a Group 2 race that season; the Group 3 Craven Stakes; and the Houghton Stakes, all in England. Shipped over to the United States to contest the Breeders' Cup Mile at Aqueduct, he finished third.

Shadeed was better known as a sire in Great Britain and Europe than in the United States. His most notable runners were English and French champion juvenile filly Shadayid; English, Irish, and European champion filly Sayyedati; and Italian champion Free Thinker.

But he did sire some North American headliners, too. His son Alydeed, recently the leading sire in Canada, was second in the 1992 Preakness and several other Grade 1 races. Another of Shadeed's colts, Citadeed, was a Grade 2 winner here, and Infamous Deed won a Grade 3.

Shadeed has 17 crops at the races and total progeny earnings of $13,665,814.