Prominent Oklahoma Sire Kipling Dies at 23

Leading Oklahoma sire Kipling was euthanized this week due to the infirmities of old age and will be buried at Dr. Warren Center's Mighty Acres Farm, according to farm manager Randy Blair. The 23-year-old stallion stood at Mighty Acres for nine of his 18 years at stud.

Kipling was a high-profile sales yearling, having topped the 1997 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale when Coolmore agent Demi O'Byrne bought him for $1.4 million from Lane's End's consignment. The colt by Gulch was the first foal out of Weekend Storm, a Storm Bird half sister to grade 1 winner and champion A.P. Indy and full sister to Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Summer Squall. 

As a racehorse, Kipling did not match the expectations from his pedigree. He did not become a stakes winner, but compiled a 5-4-2 record out of 28 starts and earned $121,862. His soft race record, however, allowed him to be purchased by Center, who campaigned him for his last 12 races. 

Kipling became Center's first stallion, entering stud in 2001 at H & S Farm near Chelsea, Okla., before standing at Tooth-Acres Farm in Arkansas for two years. Kipling was sent back to Oklahoma after Center bought Mighty Acres near Pryor. In 2003, Center bred a Kipling colt out of the stakes winner Klondike Kaytie that he sold for $20,000 as a yearling. The colt grew up to be multiple grade 1 winner and multi-millionaire Kip Deville.

Kip Deville won the NetJets Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) and Frank E. Kilroe Mile Handicap (G1T) in 2007 and later captured the Maker's Mark Mile Stakes (G1T) and Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap (G1T) at 5 and 6, respectively. Out of Kip Deville's 12 wins in 30 starts, 10 were in black-type stakes and seven of those stakes were graded. Kip Deville came back in 2008 to contest the Breeders' Cup Mile but was runner-up that year to Goldikova in the first of her three consecutive Mile victories. Kip Deville was retired with $3,325,489 in earnings. 

Center sold an interest in Kipling to Crestwood Farm in 2006 and the stallion was relocated to the Central Kentucky farm for the 2007 breeding season. The stallion stood at Crestwood for seven years before being returned to Mighty Acres in 2013.

Kipling sired nine stakes winners and 14 black-type-placed performers. His other top runners included six-time stakes winner Dreamsandvisions and multiple listed stakes winners Miriam L., Taylor Madison, Big Sugarush, and Miss Kipling. Kipling's runners have earned more than $16 million through Dec. 16 and averaged $56,148 per runner.

"He was Dr. Center's first stallion and put the farm on the map with Kip Deville," recalled Blair. "I've been around this horse for more than 20 years, and he was a great horse to be around."

Kipling will be buried alongside Kip Deville, who died in 2010 following a lengthy battle with laminitis.