Death Of High Chapparal, Sire Of Golden Sword
| Death Of High Chapparal, Sire Of Golden Sword |
Dual Derby winner High Chaparral, and the sire of Summerhill Stud’s Golden Sword, has died at the age of 15. The six-time Group 1 winning son of Sadler’s Wells was put down at Fethard Equine Hospital during exploratory colic surgery due to a perforated intestine. Winner of 10 races from 13 starts, High Chaparral was a Group 1 winner at two, three, and four years of age.
He completed the Epsom-Curragh Derby double in 2002 and landed the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Arlington Park in 2002 and again the following year at Santa Anita before retiring to stud.
Successful in both hemispheres, High Chaparral’s most notable offspring include the top-class ten-time Group 1 winner So You Think, Toronado, It’s A Dundeel, Shoot Out and Descarado.
Other stars of his stud career included Wigmore Hall, Redwood, Western Hymn, High Jinx and Free Eagle.
The only son of High Chapparal at stud in South Africa is Summerhill’s resident sire Golden Sword [pictured above]. A magnificent and athletic dark bay stallion with a big white blaze, his first season at stud was 2012.
It is said that his foals born in 2013, topped the birth weights on the scale at Summerhill. Summerhill’s website describes his foals as “Better judges than ourselves have labelled his foals the toast of last season. He throws sturdy, well grown, good limbed youngsters.”
Golden Sword, a top-class racehorse himself, broke the track record at Meydan when winning over 2000m. He also won one of Britain’s major Derby preps, the G3 Chester Vase, ran second in the Irish Derby, and ran the mighty Sea The Stars to two lengths when fifth in the Epsom Derby.
A big horse standing 16.2h, Golden Sword is from one the greatest families in the stud book, whose members include the classic winning fillies Alexandrova and Chicquita (both, like Golden Sword, descendants of the great Sadler’s Wells), as well as former legendary SA sire Royal Prerogative and Dolpour – the latter being the broodmare sire of The Apache.
Owned by Sheikh Mohamed Bin Khalifa, Summerhill, Drakenstein, Wilgebosdrift and Moutonshoek Studs, Golden Sword stands for a fee of R20 000 + Vat for the 2013 season.
– extract coolmore.com
– summerhill.co.za
