Z Fortune dies of heart attack after colic surgery

Grade 3 winner Z Fortune has died of a heart attack while recovering from colic surgery, according to a Facebook post by HRTV’s Carolyn Conley. He was 7 and died in California at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, according to Conley’s post.

Conley, a lifelong horsewoman who used to exercise Z Fortune’s sire Siphon, adopted Z Fortune from New Vocations last May. On Aug. 11, Conley had tweeted that Z Fortune was undergoing colic surgery after colicking in 105-degree Los Angeles heat, and she later revealed that his small intestine had twisted around his large intestine.

Conley kept the horse’s fans updated via Twitter and Facebook throughout his post-operative care at Chino Valley Equine Hospital. Z Fortune suffered a setback about a week after surgery when he developed postoperative ileus, which Conley tweeted was “common after strangulating obstruction in the small intestine.”

On her Facebook page Thursday, Conley announced her horse’s death of a “sudden heart attack” and notes that “Z was just rounding the bend to recovery. . . . He was brave and solid and I will miss him terribly.”

Campaigned by Zayat Stables and trained by Steve Asmussen, Z Fortune won the 2008 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds to gain graded-winner status. He placed in four stakes, three of them graded, and earned $432,942. He retired with 3 wins, 2 seconds, and 2 thirds from 15 lifetime starts.

Delehanty Stock Farm bred Z Fortune in New York from the Grade 2 winner Fortunate Faith, by Fortunate Prospect. He was her first stakes winner.