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Gr.1 Breeders' Cup Classic (1988) winner Awesome Again died Dec. 15 at Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farm at the ripe old age of 26 from unknown causes.
The Canadian-bred son of Deputy Minister sired four Breeders' Cup winners. Bred and campaigned by Frank Stronach, Awesome Again had an exemplary résumé as both a racehorse and a stallion. He broke his maiden at Hollywood Park in just his second start as a 3-year-old in 1997. He returned a few weeks later to capture that year's Queen's Plate Stakes at Woodbine. Back in the United States that summer, he went on to win the Jim Dandy Stakes and was third to Deputy Commander in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
At 4, he completed an undefeated season that included five graded stakes victories, among them the Stephen Foster Handicap, Whitney Handicap, and one of the most memorable editions of the Breeders' Cup Classic. Looking defeated in the historic event at Churchill Downs, he rallied in the stretch to top-grade/group 1 winner Coronado's Quest and Swain and the previous year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, Silver Charm.
Awesome Again was retired from racing in 1998 with nine wins from 12 starts and earnings of $4,374,590 and began a 20-year stud career at Stronach's Adena Springs Kentucky.
As accomplished in the breeding shed as he was on the track, Awesome Again sired three champions: Ghostzapper, the 2004 Horse of the Year and champion older horse; Ginger Punch, the 2007 champion older mare; and Nominee, a multiple champions in Trinidad and Tobago. He became the first Breeders' Cup Classic winner to sire a Breeders' Cup Classic winner when Ghostzapper won the 2004 Breeders' Cup Classic.