Top broodmare North of Eden dies at 28

North of Eden, the dam of champion Paradise Creek and two other Grade 1 winners, has died at age 28, Bridlewood Farm has announced.

A Bridlewood foundation mare, North of Eden died due to natural causes, according to the Ocala, Fla., farm.

In her breeding career, she produced 1994 champion grass horse Paradise Creek, now a stallion in Japan, and Grade 1 winners Forbidden Apple and Wild Event, who stand in Florida and Brazil, respectively. She also is the dam of Grade 3-placed stakes winner I’m Very Irish. Her last reported foal, the Vindication gelding Exonerate, is a 5-year-old this season.

North of Eden’s full sister to Paradise Creek, Paradise River, also is the dam of Group 1 winner David Junior. Paradise River died last year.

“North of Eden was and will always be the price of Bridlewood Farm,” Bridlewood general manager George Isaacs said. “To be blessed and associated with such a magnificent blue hen mare is every serious horse breeder’s dream come true. The odds of any mare having two, let alone three, Grade 1 winners, another stakes winner, and a daughter becoming a Grade 1 producer, are truly astronomical if you think about it. She was revered here at the farm because we all knew how special she was.”

North of Eden, a daughter of Tree of Knowledge, by Sassafras, has been buried in the Bridlewood cemetery.