Pyramid Peak, graded stakes winner and sire, dead at 21

Pyramid Peak, a multiple graded stakes winner and sire, was humanely euthanized on May 17 at Nuckols Farm in Midway, Ky., due to the infirmities of old age. The Mt. Livermore horse was 21.

Out of the Grade 3-placed Stalwart mare Way It Should Be, Pyramid Peak was bred by Donna Ward and John Oxley and trained by John Ward. In 1995, Pyramid Peak joined Jambalaya Jazz as the first two starters for the John Oxley-John Ward tandem to start in the Kentucky Derby. He finished 17th in the classic and later that year posted back-to-back runner-up efforts in marquee Grade 1 events, to Serena’s Song in the Haskell and to Derby winner Thunder Gulch in the Travers.

Pyramid Peak won eight of 22 career starts, spanning five seasons, and earned $871,559. He picked up four stakes wins, three of them Grade 3 events, with arguably his best performance coming in the 1996 Baltimore Breeders’ Cup Handicap, in which he equaled Laurel Park’s track record of 1:47.63 at 1 1/8 miles.

Pyramid Peak, pensioned from stud duty at Nuckols several years ago, sired 154 foals of racing age and 89 winners that earned $6,113,999. Among his best runners were stakes winners Peak Maria’s Way, Pyramist, Charedi’s Peak, and Pyrite Apex, and Jamaican champion imported filly Explosive Peak.