Exchange Rate euthanized at age 19

Exchange Rate, a Grade 2 winner standing at Three Chimneys Farm, has been euthanized due to complications from pneumonia and liver dysfunction, and from deep vein thrombosis of a hind leg. The 19-year-old son of Danzig was preparing to stand the 2016 breeding season at the Midway, Ky., farm for an advertised fee of $20,000. He will be buried at Three Chimneys.

“Exchange Rate was booked full again this year and was running on all cylinders at stud. We especially hate losing him because he was such a wonderful horse to be around and exuded class,” said Grant Williamson, director of stallion nominations at Three Chimneys.

Exchange Rate is the sire of 12 crops of racing age, with 605 winners and progeny earnings of more than $43.6 million. His most successful runner was Reckless Abandon, who earned Group 1 victories in England and France.

Other notable runners by Exchange Rate include Grade 1 winners Ermine, Ball Dancing, Sunset Glow, and Swap Fliparoo; Grade 2 winner Excaper; and Grade 3 winners Xchanger, Rated Feisty, and Be Fair. He also sired Saudi Arabian champion Alnajim Almodeea and Puerto Rican champion Marianita.

Bred in Kentucky by Philip Freedman, Exchange Rate was purchased for $1.4 million by Padua Stables at the 1998 Keeneland July yearling sale. He spent his racing career in the barn of trainer D. Wayne Lukas, winning his debut at Hollywood Park, then finishing behind Dixie Union in the Grade 3 Hollywood Juvenile Championship and Best Pal Stakes.

Exchange Rate returned at age 3 to win a Santa Anita allowance and the Risen Star Stakes en route to a start in the 2000 Kentucky Derby. He raced once more as a 3-year-old, winning a handicap at Churchill Downs.

The horse had his most successful season as a 4-year-old, winning the Grade 2 Tom Fool Handicap and finishing second in the Grade 2 Frank E. Kilroe Mile and the Churchill Downs Handicap. He retired with six wins in 15 career starts for earnings of $479,803.

Exchange Rate was retired to Padua Stables in Florida for the 2002 breeding season and stood there for five seasons before relocating to Three Chimneys. He also was a frequent shuttler to Argentina for the Southern Hemisphere season.