Young sire Willcox Inn euthanized after paddock accident

Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

by Sarah Mace

Promising young sire Willcox Inn had his stud career cut short when he had to be euthanized after being injured in a paddock accident on Friday, May 24. The seven-year-old son of the late Harlan’s Holiday was wrapping up his first breeding season at Saratoga Stud, LLC in Stillwater.

Suzie O’Cain, the head of stallion promotion and development at Saratoga Stud, not only mourns the loss of the individual, but also his lost potential as a sire. “This is so sad, not only for the connections and for breeders in New York, but for the breed as a whole,” said O’Cain. “A few weeks ago we saw a son of the late Harlan’s Holiday sire a Kentucky Oaks winner in his first crop (Lovely Maria by Majesticperfection). This is turning out to be a significant sire line and there aren’t going to be too many more of them.”

Bred by Dr. John A. Chandler, Willcox Inn was out of the multiple graded stakes-performing Gone West mare De Aar, who is a half-sister to millionaire Grade 1 turf runners Cetewayo and Dynaforce. He was trained by Michael Stidham and co-owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stable and All In Stable, a partnership including Marette Farrell, John Adger, Jack Hodge, Marty Nixon and Ron and Al Lepinski, several of them first-time horse owners.

On his way to becoming a millionaire and multiple graded stakes winner Willcox Inn generated a lot of excitement for this group. When he retired Gretchen Jackson said “we have had many exciting moments in racing, a lot of them were with Willcox Inn.” Many of the other partners felt the same way and enthusiastically joined the stallion syndicate.

A debut maiden special weight winner at Arlington Park, defeating eventual Kentucky Derby winner and champion 3-year-old Animal Kingdom, Willcox Inn continued to make a strong impression in two more starts as a juvenile, finishing third in the Grade 1 Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland and the Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Churchill Downs.

The following year he captured the Arlington Classic Stakes at 1 1/16 miles, the Grade 2 American Derby at 1 3/16 miles on turf and Grade 3 Hawthorne Derby at 1 1/8 miles. Second to Wise Dan in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at four, as a 5-year-old he finished in the money in five graded stakes. He won the Grade 3 Washington Park Handicap in near course record time, finished second in the Grade 2 Dixie Stakes and Grade 3 Mervin H. Muniz Jr. Handicap and third in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile S. and Grade 3 John B. Connally Turf Cup Stakes.

Willcox Inn took easily to the rigors of the breeding shed. O’Cain said, “He was the most willing horse I ever saw. He had obviously been handled right every step of the way and trusted us that we’d always do the right thing.”

Obviously deeply upset by the loss, O’Cain had become strongly attached to Willcox Inn. “He was developing into such a beautiful stallion during his first year in the breeding shed,” she said. “When he came to us he was race fit and looked like a racehorse. This spring and summer he has been filling out and looking one hundred percent like a first class sire.”

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