Sovereign Award-winning owner Eugene Melnyk dead at 62

Canadian Hall of Fame owner Eugene Melnyk, who also owned the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League, died Monday at age 62.

A statement from his family on the Senators website said that Melnyk, who underwent a liver transplant in 2015, died "after an illness he faced with determination and courage."

Melnyk was born in Toronto, Ontario, to parents born in Ukraine. He made his fortune in the pharmaceutical industry, and later made his home in Barbados, with his racing silks designed after the nation's flag and several of his top horses named after landmarks in that nation. The success of horses carrying those colors earned him Sovereign Awards as Canada's outstanding owner in 2007 and 2009, and outstanding breeder of 2009. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017.

Melnyk is known for campaigning Eclipse Award champion sprinter Speightstown, who wrapped up his championship campaign with a victory in the 2004 Breeders' Cup Sprint. He is now a perennial leading sire at WinStar Farm. Among Melnyk's other top runners was 2007 Canadian Horse of the Year Sealy Hill, who swept the Canadian Triple Tiara.

Melnyk's other Sovereign Award champions include Grade 1 winner Lukes Alley, and Archers Bay, Leigh Court, Marchfield, and Roxy Gap.

Flower Alley carried Melnyk's colors to victory in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes and three other graded stakes, then went on to become a classic sire with 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I'll Have Another. Melnyk's other Grade 1 winners included Bishop Court Hill, Harmony Lodge, Host, Marley Vale, Pool Land, and Tweedside.

In addition to various positions within the sports industry, Melnyk was a well-known philanthropist who used his ties to hockey and horse racing for good. He was instrumental in funding the opening of Anna House in 2003, a child care facility for backstretch workers at Belmont Park. For his efforts within the industry, he was a co-recipient of the National Turf Writers Association’s Joe Palmer Award and was named Owner of the Year in 2005 by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.