Breeders' Cup Turf Winner Red Rocks Dead at 15

Multiple grade 1 winner and John Deere Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) victor Red Rocks died in September at the age of 15, Calumet Farm has confirmed.

Bred by Ballylinch Stud, Red Rocks was from the first crop of European champion and subsequent international sire sensation Galileo. He was one of four grade/group 1 winners in the sire's first crop along with Allegretto, Nightime, and Sixties Icon. Red Rocks was the third foal and first graded stakes winner produced by Pharmacist, a stakes-winning daughter of Machiavellian. 

Initially raced by E.H. Jones, Red Rocks' potential was spotted by agent Jamie McCalmont, who pitched the colt as a potential purchase to J. Paul Reddam. The colt remained with trainer Brian Meehan and never finished off the board in 2006, ending the season by winning the Breeders' Cup Turf. The race was Meehan's first win in the Breeders' Cup and Reddam's second, having won the Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) with Wilko in 2004.

Red Rocks contested the Breeders' Cup Turf again in 2007 and finished third. He added a second top-level score to his stakes tally when he won the 2008 Man o' War Stakes (G1T) and retired in 2009 with more than $2.9 million in earnings.

Red Rocks had modest success as a sire, getting 43% winners from foals and three black-type winners out of seven crops of racing age. The stallion entered stud in Italy in 2010 and was relocated to Calumet for the 2015 breeding season. His fee was $10,000 in 2018.