Lord Nelson euthanized due to laminitis at age 9

Multiple Grade 1 winner Lord Nelson, who fought through laminitis to have a stud career, has succumbed to the dreaded hoof disease. Spendthrift Farm announced Thursday that the 9-year-old son of Pulpit has been euthanized.

Lord Nelson's travails began when a cut on his leg, which subsequently became infected, forced his scratch from the 2016 Breeders' Cup Sprint, which was to be his final start before retiring to Spendthrift. He was set to stand the 2017 breeding season, but his recovery from the infection proved slow, and laminitis then developed in both his front feet as a secondary complication.

Spendthrift staff and a team of veterinarians managed Lord Nelson through his initial bout with laminitis. He was able to debut at stud in 2018, with support for his condition including specialized shoes and a carefully managed book of mares. He stood four seasons as a stallion, but recently another flare-up of the disease could not be overcome.

“Upon consulting with a veterinarian team consisting of Dr. Scott Morrison, Dr. Jim Morehead, and Dr. Caleb Harms and our stallion manager Wayne Howard, it was determined that the only humane course of action we had was to euthanize Lord Nelson following his latest difficult battle with laminitis,” Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey said in a press release. “It’s pretty well-chronicled, his long fight with the disease. After several encouraging years, it unfortunately caught up with him and we couldn’t allow him to suffer after we had run out of medical options.

“It is a very sad day at Spendthrift,” Toffey continued. “Lord Nelson was an unbelievably courageous horse, and I think he’ll always be remembered by the entire team at Spendthrift and anyone who ever got to be around him. Just a very special animal, and we will miss him.”

Lord Nelson won the Speakeasy Stakes as a juvenile and the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes early in his 3-year-old year. He also was second in the Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes and third in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes that season.

Lord Nelson blossomed as a 4-year-old in 2016, winning all four of his starts, including consecutive Grade 1 victories in the Triple Bend Stakes, Bing Crosby Stakes, and Santa Anita Sprint Championship. His performance in the Bing Crosby was near record-setting, as he ran six furlongs in 1:07.65, just 0.05 of a second off the track record of 1:07.60, set in 1973, when times were recorded in fifths.

Lord Nelson’s oldest of what will be four crops of foals are juveniles, and he is the sire of three winners thus far, including two-time winner Bueno Bueno, an allowance winner at Ellis Park after winning his maiden. He also is the sire of Gulfstream maiden winner Basking, and Trafalgar, an impressive maiden winner on Oct. 2 at Churchill Downs.