Pensioned California sire Stormin Fever dies at 23

Stormin Fever, a Grade 3 winner and pensioned California sire, was euthanized Thursday due to the infirmities of old age. He was 23.

The son of Storm Cat was pensioned at the end of the 2016 breeding season and was owned by Golden Eagle Farm.

Stormin Fever ran as a homebred for Virginia-based Edward P. Evans and won eight of 21 starts for earnings of $484,664. Racing for trainer Mark Hennig, he won the Grade 3 Sport Page Handicap at Aqueduct and placed in five additional graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Vosburgh Stakes in 1998 and 1999.

Stormin Fever retired to Airdrie Stud in Midway, Ky., for the 2000 breeding season and stood there through the end of the 2008 season.

He was purchased by the Golden Eagle Farm operation of Betty Mabee and her son Larry to stand at their Ramona, Calif., base from 2009 to 2014. When Golden Eagle Farm closed its operations, Stormin Fever was moved to Rancho Temescal in Piru, Calif., to stand his final season while still remaining the property of the Mabees.

Stormin Fever has sired 15 crops of racing age, with 456 winners and progeny earnings in excess of $32.3 million. His most notable runner was 2010 Canadian Horse of the Year Biofuel, who was also named the country’s champion juvenile and 3-year-old filly in successive years.

Other successful Stormin Fever foals include Grade 1 winners Sweet Talker, Check the Label, and Tarlow; Grade 2 winners A Little Warm and Storm Wolf; and Grade 3 winners Whirlie Bertie and Misty Rosette. His top runners as a broodmare sire are Grade 2 winner Venus Valentine and Grade 3 winner Paladin Bay.

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