Rainbow Quest, champion, dead at 26

Rainbow Quest, a champion racehorse and leading sire and broodmare sire in England, was euthanized July 7 at age 26, Juddmonte Farms has announced.

A son of Blushing Groom, Rainbow Quest was euthanized because of "unresolvable complications following emergency surgery for colic," according to a Juddmonte release.

An English and French champion, Rainbow Quest stood at Juddmonte's Banstead Manor Stud in England.

A top-class juvenile in England in 1983, Rainbow Quest went on to win the 1985 Arc de Triomphe in France and the Coronation Cup in England en route to champion older horse honors in both countries. He retired with a record of 6 wins, 4 seconds, and 2 thirds from 14 lifetime starts, for combined earnings of $592,716.

At stud, Rainbow Quest sired North American champion Fiji, who won the Eclipse Award as 1998's top turf female, and European champion Saumarez.

He twice was England's leading broodmare sire, in 2003 and 2004.

Rainbow Quest was bred in Kentucky by Alan Clore from the Group 3-winning Herbager mare I Will Follow. Juddmonte's owner, Khaled Abdullah, bought Rainbow Quest for $950,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky summer yearling sale in 1982.

* Juddmonte also announced that Aryenne, dam of Rainbow Quest's first classic winner, 1990 Epsom Derby winner Quest for Fame, died on July 9 at age 30. Aryenne, by Green Dancer, won the 1980 French 1000 Guineas.