Champion, International Sire Forty Niner Dies at 35

Four-time grade 1 winner, champion, and prominent international sire Forty Niner died from old age May 18, according to Shigeki Yusa, stallion affairs manager for Japan Bloodhorse Breeders Association.

The son of Mr. Prospector turned 35 on May 11 and had received many birthday wishes from fans, Yusa said on Twitter.

"We are truly saddened to lose him and are grateful for all the support from his fans over the years," he said.

A homebred for Claiborne Farm out of the Tom Rolfe stakes winner File, Forty Niner was a brilliant 2-year-old. He won five of his six starts at 2, putting together a championship season with victories in the Sanford Stakes (G2), Futurity Stakes (G1), Champagne Stakes (G1), and Breeders' Futurity (G2).

He kept his top form at 3 when he won the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) and was runner-up by a neck to Brian's Time in the Florida Derby (G1) on his way to a second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby (G1) behind Winning Colors. Forty Niner went on to set a track record that year at Monmouth Park, going a mile in 1:33.80 that set him up for a win in the Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1). He also won the Travers Stakes (G1) and the NYRA Mile Handicap before ending his racing career finishing fourth in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1).

Forty Niner entered stud at Claiborne in 1989 and became the leading North American freshman sire in 1992, with graded stakes winners Tactical Advantage and Dalhart in his first crop. He also led his sire class as a second-crop sire in 1993 with four stakes winners and $1,914,505 in progeny earnings and again as a third-crop sire with seven stakes winners and progeny earnings of nearly $3.2 million.

Nine Keys became a grade 1 winner in 1994, taking the Apple Blossom Handicap, but Forty Niner had not sired enough runners at the elite level to prevent him from being sold in 1995 for $10 million to the Japan Racing Association for stud duty at the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders' Association's Shizunai Stallion Station. As so often happens with exported sires, however, Forty Niner's best was coming. In 1996 he was represented by Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Editor's Note and NYRA Mile Handicap (G1) winner Gold Fever.

For his stallion career overall, Forty Niner sired 56 (6%) black-type winners and another 50 that placed in black-type stakes. His top runners include 26 graded/group winners worldwide led by North American grade 1 winners Editor's Note, Coronado's Quest, Ecton Park, Nine Keys, Marley Vale, and Gold Fever. In Japan, he sired Utopia, who won stakes in Japan, Dubai, and the United States and earned nearly $5 million in purses.

His influence will live on in pedigrees through his prominent sire sons Distorted Humor  and Roar and their sons. Distorted Humor is represented this year by 24 sire-sons in North America, including Alternation , Brethren , Jimmy Creed , Khozan , and Maclean's Music .

Forty Niner also is the sire of American graded stakes winner End Sweep, who stood in Japan as well and sired Japanese 2007 Horse of the Year Admire Moon and champion older mare Sweep Tosho.