Highfield Princess, multiple Group 1-winning sprinter, dies at 7
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The globe-trotting multiple Group 1-winning sprinter Highfield Princess died Saturday after sustaining an injury in a stall accident last week. The Night of Thunder mare was 7.
Highfield Princess had been due to race this season, but last week owner-breeder John Fairley announced her retirement after she sustained a hind-leg injury when cast in her stall. At the time, the hope was that she could recover to become a broodmare in 2025. Although the mare initially made progress in treatment, she was unable to recover from “an inoperable fracture,” a joint statement from trainer John Quinn, his son Sean, and Fairley said.
“Although over the past week she fought with the same extraordinary spirit she showed on the racecourse, last night she lost her battle for life,” the statement said.
Highfield Princess put together a record of 39-14-8-6 and earned more than $2.3 million over four seasons of racing in England, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, and the United States. She scored a trio of Group 1 victories in 2022, winning the Nunthorpe in England, the Flying Five in Ireland, and the Prix Maurice de Gheest in France. She added the Group 1 Prix de l'Abbaye in 2023 in France.
Highfield Princess earned three other stakes wins and seven other stakes placings in her career. That included a strong week at the renowned Royal Ascot meeting in 2023, in which she was second in the Group 1 Kings Stand Stakes, and four days later, ran third in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee. In her lone trip to the U.S., Highfield Princess was fourth, beaten less than two lengths by Caravel, in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland.
“It has been the privilege of our lives to have known Highfield Princess. We are all heartbroken,” Fairley said in Sunday’s statement.
“She was the horse you dream of breeding and owning. She took our family on an extraordinary adventure around the world and created so many precious memories. She loved to race and her intelligence, toughness and will to win were incredible. She was truly a special horse, a member of our family.”
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