Yes It’s True euthanized at age 19

Yes It’s True, a Grade 1 winner and member of the Three Chimneys Farm stallion roster, was euthanized Monday at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Ky., due to a perforated intestine.

The 19-year-old son of Is It True began to show signs of colic before being diagnosed with a perforated intestine, and the decision was made to euthanize after emergency surgery proved unsuccessful. He was buried at Three Chimneys in Midway, Ky.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Yes It's True,” said Three Chimneys chairman Goncalo Torrealba. “He was a cornerstone of success for the many breeders that supported him and a wonderful horse to be around.”

Yes It’s True has sired 12 crops of racing age with 657 winners and combined progeny earnings exceeding $58.8 million.

His most prominent runners include Grade 1 winners The Big Beast and Proud Accolade, Grade 2 winners La Verdad and Aikenite, and Grade 3 winners Yesbyjimminy, Calamity Kate, Actin Good, Off Duty, and Nordic Truce.

Bred in Kentucky by George Waggoner Stables, Yes It’s True was a $220,000 purchase out of the 1997 Keeneland September yearling sale, then was purchased by Padua Stables for $800,000 at the 1998 Barretts March select 2-year-olds in training sale. He won 11 of 22 starts over three seasons of racing for earnings of $1,080,700 racing for Satish Sanan’s Padua Stables and trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

Yes It’s True excelled as a sprinter, winning the Grade 1 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Stakes, the Grade 2 Riva Ridge Stakes, six Grade 3 races, and a pair of non-graded stakes, all at seven furlongs or less.

At age 2, he equaled the track record at Churchill Downs for five furlongs, winning the WHAS-11 Stakes in 57.66 seconds, then followed up in his next start by setting a track record for 5 1/2 furlongs by winning the Kentucky Breeders’ Cup Stakes in 1:03.61.

Yes It’s True was retired to Sanan’s Padua Farm in Summerfield, Fla., for the 2001 breeding season, then was relocated to Three Chimneys for the 2005 season after the farm purchased an interest in the stallion.

Sons of Yes It’s True currently at stud include Aikenite, The Big Beast, Icon Ike, Wicked Rich, and Yes Its Legal.