Catlaunch, one of four Ohio-breds with more than $1 million in earnings, was euthanized due to a chronic neurological disease. Old Friends Equine Retirement in Georgetown, Ky., made the announcement Friday. The 17-year-old Noble Cat gelding raced as a homebred for Ron Fields’s Scioto Farm. He began his career with trainer Luis “Albert” Palacios but moved to assistant Ivan Vazquez late in his 3-year-old season after Palacios died in a car accident. Over the course of 11 seasons, Catlaunch dominated the Ohio-bred ranks and built a cult following nationally. The gelding won five editions of the Michael F. Rowland Memorial Handicap at Thistledown; four runnings each of the Ruff/Kirchberg Memorial and the Sydney Gendelman Memorial; three renewals each of the Babst/Palacios Memorial and the George Lewis Memorial Stakes; and twice won the Best of Ohio Endurance Stakes and Governor’s Buckeye Cup. Catlaunch was voted Ohio’s Horse of the Year in 2008, 2010, and 2011. When Catlaunch retired at age 12, he had won 40 of 108 starts for earnings of $1,122,309. He won 24 stakes races and placed in 19 more. At the time of his retirement in 2013, Catlaunch trailed only Grade 1 winner Harlan’s Holiday ($3,632,664) on the Ohio-bred earnings list. He now sits in third behind the still-active Rivers Run Deep ($1,141,765). Though he started his career as a hot-tempered 2-year-old, the gelding became so placid as a pensioner that Old Friends tours were often highlighted by Catlaunch gently taking a carrot slice offered from the teeth of the farm’s founder and president, Michael Blowen. “Catlaunch, with his warm personality and good looks, was a favorite among all of our volunteers and farm staff,” Blowen said. Also on Friday, Old Friends announced the death of Grade 2 winner Tour of the Cat at the operation’s Kentucky Downs location. “While it has been an exciting week in racing, as the industry crowned a new Kentucky Derby champion, it's been a sad week of loss here,” Blowen said. “We were so proud to have had both of these wonderful horses with us and proud to be able to give them the dignified retirement they earned and so richly deserved.”