Grade 1 winner Geri euthanized

Grade 1 winner Geri was euthanized on May 25 at Park Equine Hospital in Versailles, Ky., due to complications from colic.

Geri, who was 27, had been repatriated from Italy in 2013 to reside at the Old Friends Thoroughbred retirement farm in Georgetown, Ky.

Geri, who raced as a homebred for the late Allen Paulson, was a son of turf champion Theatrical, whom Paulson also co-owned. Geri was a graded stakes winner on both dirt and turf, and won 9 of 19 career starts for earnings of more than $1.7 million. His biggest victory came in the Grade 1 Oaklawn Handicap in 1996, a season in which he also won the Grade 3 Creme Fraiche at Gulfstream Park. The following year, he won the Woodbine Mile - now a Grade 1 event - and went on to finish second in the Breeders' Cup Mile, one of his four Grade 1 placings. He also won the Grade 2 Citation Handicap that year.

As a stallion, Geri was represented by six stakes winners, including Grade 2 winner Bedanken and Argentine Group 2 winner La Bruyera. He was also the sire of Japanese millionaire Lucky Break and steeplechaser Party Airs.

Old Friends hosted an annual Memorial Day ceremony on Monday to honor all of its horses who have died during the past year. Since the turn of the calendar to 2019, the Kentucky farm has reported the deaths of Australian champion Bint Marscay; Chilean champion Santona; Grade 3 winners Danthebluegrassman, Silver Way, and Yankee Fourtune; and the winner Ready's Rocket.