Cherokee Run Euthanized Due to Old Age

Pensioned stallion Cherokee Run has been euthanized because of declining health and the infirmities of old age, Darley announced July 2. He was 26.

Cherokee Run entered stud at Jonabell Farm in 1996, then owned by the Bell family, and stood as a Darley stallion after the farm was purchased in 2001 by Sheikh Mohammed.

Godolphin president Jimmy Bell said, "Cherokee Run was certainly a significant stallion at Jonabell in the '90s and early 2000s, but he also played a meaningful role in the farm's transition when Sheikh Mohammed established Darley here in Lexington in 2001. He was a fierce competitor on the track, a real favorite in the barn, and a wonderful link to the Mac Robinson family."

Cherokee Run has 53 career stakes winners, including champions and grade I winners War Pass and Chilukki. His 16 other graded or group winners include Sean Avery, who became his sire's most recent graded winner with victory in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (gr. I) in 2011. Cherokee Run's progeny have earned almost $55 million to date.

War Pass and Chilukki were both champion 2-year-olds, with War Pass voted the top juvenile male of 2007 after winning both the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) and the Champagne Stakes (gr. I). Chilukki won the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly after winning the Vinery Del Mar Debutante (gr. I) and Oak Leaf Stakes (gr. I). She also finished second in that year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I).

Bred in Florida by George C. Onett, Cherokee Run was out of the Silver Saber mare Cherokee Dame. He raced in the colors of Jill Robinson, winning on 13 occasions and earning $1,531,818. Both Frank Alexander and Frank Gomez trained him during his career.

Cherokee Run won the Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I) in 1994 and also was victorious in the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (gr. II), wins that were instrumental in him being named champion sprinter that year. Although his greatest strength was in sprint races, he also ran second in the 1993 Preakness Stakes (gr. I).

Cherokee Run won four other stakes races during his career and was also placed in the Metropolitan Handicap, Carter Handicap, and the Vosburgh Stakes (all grade I).