Clever Trick euthanized

Clever Trick, sire of millionaire Anet and 16 other graded stakes winners, was euthanized on June 5 after a Glencrest Farm veterinarian determined that the stallion had had massive kidney failure. Clever Trick was 28 and stood at Glencrest for his entire stud career.

According to a release issued by David Greathouse, co-owner of Glencrest, farm officials found Clever Trick on the ground in his paddock on Saturday.

Clever Trick was a son of Icecapade and the Better Bee mare Kankakee Miss. He won eight stakes in his racing career, five of those at age 2, and scored his most notable victories in the 1979 Bachelor Stakes at Oaklawn and the 1980 Gravesend at Aqueduct. He retired with a record of 29-18-2-1 and $419,787 in earnings.

He began his stud career at Glencrest in 1981 and got off to a fast start, siring 18 juvenile winners from his initial crop to race. That group featured the speedy sprinter Phone Trick, who went on to sire the 1997 Horse of the Year, Favorite Trick, as well as champions Phone Chatter and Caller One.

Clever Trick has sired more than 50 stakes winners and has current total progeny earnings of more than $43.5 million. Glencrest bred him to a few mares early this season but pensioned him after he became unable to continue breeding. None of the mares bred this year is in foal, so Clever Trick's foals born in 2004 will be his final crop.