Multiple stakes winner Saint Leon dies of sudden illness

The venerable Saint Leon, a two-time winner of the Arlington Sprint, died suddenly early Tuesday after being stricken with internal distress.

Saint Leon had been sent Sunday from Hawthorne for a winter break at a northern Illinois farm. On Tuesday morning, Monique Cameron, the farm operator, called trainer Michele Boyce and said Saint Leon was found down in his stall, unable to rise, when the time came for morning turnout.

“The vet got there almost immediately, but it happened so quick,” Boyce said. “They felt it had to be a ruptured stomach or intestine. He’d shown no sign of colic.”

Saint Leon, a 10-year-old gelding, had a remarkable career. As a 3-year-old in 2008, he showed some ability, but by 2009, he was racing in $5,000 claimers at Mountaineer, and in July of that year, Margaret Burlingame, who had been part of the original ownership group campaigning Saint Leon, had seen enough. She claimed the horse for $5,000 and gave him to Boyce with instructions that Saint Leon be retired if he couldn’t get over myriad physical problems and return to training.

Saint Leon didn’t start for nearly a year, but he roared back into action in July 2010, winning four races in a row upon his return, and for the most part, he held that form for six seasons while campaigned judiciously by Boyce. Saint Leon would win half his 28 starts between 2010 and 2015, and even during a winless four-start 2015 campaign, he finished a decent fourth in what would be his final start to subsequent Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Mongolian Saturday.

“He was always such a good, sound horse,” Boyce said. “He loved to run, and he loved to train.”