Wild Again euthanized

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Wild Again, winner of the inaugural Breeders' Cup Classic in 1984 and a successful sire and broodmare sire, was euthanized Friday morning because of the infirmities of old age.

A son of Icecapade and Bushel-n-Peck, Wild Again was 28 and had been pensioned at Robert and Blythe Clay's Three Chimneys Farm since 2004.

Wild Again stood his first breeding season at Three Chimneys in 1992. He started his stud career at Calumet Farm, but when the farm's holdings were dissolved in the wake of its bankruptcy, he relocated to Clay's Midway, Ky., nursery. He already had three crops that had gotten him started with a bang. His first crop alone included Grade 1 winner A Wild Ride and Grade 1-placed Senator to Be.

Wild Again later sired Canada's 1992 champion older mare, Wilderness Song, and 1991 juvenile champion, Free at Last; overseas champions Blizzard and Super I.; and the 2002 Belmont winner, Sarava. His millionaires include Milwaukee Brew, Wild Rush, and Elmhurst, winner of the 1997 Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Sandy Hatfield, stallion manager at Three Chimneys, called Wild Again "a one-in-a-million kind of horse" and said, "Until the end he was happy, healthy, and energetic, but, above all else, he was a gentleman."

W. Paul Little bred Wild Again and sold him to Bill Allen for just $35,000 at the 1981 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale. Allen and partners' Black Chip Stable paid $360,000 to supplement the colt to the Classic, in which he narrowly beat favored Slew o'Gold and survived a lengthy inquiry. He would later stand alongside Slew o' Gold at Three Chimneys.

Wild Again also won the Grade 1 Meadowlands Cup, and the Grade 2 Oaklawn and New Orleans handicaps.

Wild Again won 8 of 28 starts and earned $2,204,829. He was to be buried at Three Chimneys next to Capote, his former barnmate at Calumet and Three Chimneys.