Hennessy dead
 

Hennessy died today at Haras La Mission (Argentina), where he was shuttling for the southern hemisphere season.

The son of Storm Cat and Island Kitty, by Hawaii died suddenly, apparently, by heart attack.

Hennessy's top runners include: Silver Tree, Henny Hughes, Madcap Escapade, Johannesburg and many others.

RIP

It seems like an abnormally large amount of thoroughbred race horses die of a heart attack :( :( :(

Terrible

OMG, that is awful. RIP. :(

Wow....
 

Rip :(

Such a shame , Sorry to hear about this :(

Oh God..... stunned.

Run in peace forever.

oh no. still fairly young, wasn't he? shame they shuttle these guys, i still think it sucks.
money...always about the money.

Sad news but now he will be at peace. He won't be pushed by his owners to produce in 2 hemispheres every year.

That's awful about Hennessy.

"Heart attack" is sort of a catch-all term. Not really the "heart attack" as occurs in people. In horses most usually they have an arrthymia (irregular fatal heart rhythm), or dissecting aortic aneurysms are not uncommon. Both can cause a horse to drop suddenly without warning.

Did you fall off the apple truck or whatever the saying is?

What MALE in their right mind is being PUSHED to bang on a daily basis. These stallions live better then 50% of America

not only is it unnatural, but it's unhealthy for a horse to cover the amount of mares in a year that some of these stallions are made to cover. you can't equate male sexual drive in a human to what these stallions go thru.

There's plenty of stallions who want nothing to do with it towards the end of a busy season, Scavs, or if they are overbooked from the start. Not a rare problem at all. One of the biggest concerns in stallion management is keeping him happy and wanting to do his job.

Realize that some stallions cover 2 or 3 mares a day, seven days a week, from mid-February to mid-June. Then ship them to a new country, where summer is winter/spring, and ask them to repeat that - it's difficult.

Stallions used to cover 30-40 mares a season, then we got ultrasound (so we could breed within hours of ovulation to maximize fertilization rate, and they didn't have to wait to see if a mare came back in estrus and needed to return to the shed to try again), so that increased bookings; and then stallions became more "public" rather than tradeoffs between fellow horse breeders; so folks wanted money back on stallion investments and they started selling 60-70-110 shares in a stallion a year to recover the stallions inflated cost over a few years ....

Go to BloodHorse and look up the numbers of foals some stallions put on the ground every year.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it :D

amazing the impact bold ruler and northern dancer had on the breed, when you consider how incredibly small their books were--especially compared to this day and age. some cover over 200 mares--without shuttling. it's insane.

Well I apologize then, but still, I really don't see an issue in it. I don't doubt there is over breeding in our industry, but there is also OVER RACE TRACKS, meaning tracks that shouldn't be running and they should just make condo's out of the land.

yeah, but race tracks don't have to worry about keeling over from overwork.

What a shame. . . He was always an underrated sire. . .

I agree.

There's a pretty good book out there, " $tud ", about the stallion business. Very interesting, author visited different farms, from Overbrook/Storm Cat to a small backyard operation in California. I'd recommend it to anyone fairly interested in the "after race track" side of the horse business.

I read it a few years ago. Good read.:)

Scav, I think the issue is that it's not good for the stallions, either mentally or physically. A stallion that is shuttled from one hemisphere to the other doesn't really ever get a break. And I'm sure even porn stars take vacations. ;)

I remember, after Alydar's rather suspicious death there was an article talking about the unnatural state of constant excitation in a stallion caused by too frequent breeding.

Sad news...RIP...

From Blood-Horse, report of mares bred ... two pages of stallions over 100. Scavs, I think even you would ask for a day off! ;)

The toppers:

Roman Ruler 197 KY
El Corredor 195 KY
Stormy Atlantic 191 KY
Giant's Causeway 191 KY
Grand Reward 187 KY
Johannesburg 183 KY
Songandaprayer 182 KY
Eurosilver 179 KY
Purge 177 KY
Wildcat Heir 173 FL
Buddha 172 KY
Afleet Alex 169 KY
Roar of the Tiger 165 FL
Chapel Royal 165 KY
Maria's Mon 165 KY
Mr. Greeley 162 KY
Lion Heart 158 KY
Closing Argument 158 FL
Malibu Moon 156 KY
Tale of the Cat 154 KY
Medaglia d'Oro 153 KY
Yonaguska 153 KY

Didn't Man O' War have a pretty big impact with just his first crop of 13? Sam Riddle just didn't wanna share too much so just imagine if he'd had crops of 30 some mares of the best in Kentucky. It's actually quite amazing to consider the quality of offspring he was able to get with the level of mare support over time (which gradually decreased for various reasons unrelated to his ability as a sire) and War Admiral was a later foal in the scheme of things.

Let's not even go into Domino with his handful of foals, 14 or so. His son Commando sire Colin and we see his male line even today through horses like Include. He sure packed a major punch without much time to do it.

Yeah I read "Stud" too. Very interesting and I learned some things about the stallions personally, not just the process. It feels so unfair when we lose one like Hennessy. You follow a career for awhile and you feel like you know them a little.

I still can't find a single article about Hennessy's death. Anyone see any?

This article was written on a brazilian website. Unfortunately it's in portuguese, but here's the link:

http://www.raialeve.com.br/conteudo/...7&&cod_secao=3

Maybe in a few days it will be found at the thoroughbred times.

not the best...but freetranslation.net can only be asked so much.

Died, today, in the Stud Her Mission, in the Argentinian one, victim of fulminating heart attack, the reproductive one Hennessy (Storm Cat and Island Kitty, by Hawaii), that fulfilled, in regime of shuttle, season of triviality in that country.

In the auction "Top Classic", that will be carried out in the near day 17, Friday, in the Brazilian Equine Society, in the Rio de Janeiro, the Stud Old Friends will present two females daughters of the consecrated stallion. They integrate the threesome of the lot 10, Note Ten (10-A, Beautiful Island, by Kingmambo) and Noble Cat (10-B, Crimson Crown, by Red Ramson), that will go to the auction jointly with Neither Zia (Our Emblem and D' Amour, by Tumble Lak).

With the unexpected death of Hennessy, his daughters, in advance, become one of the big appeals of the auction.

Article in this morning's Thoroughbred Daily News.

I hate the southern hemisphere shuttling, hate it. That has to absolutely wear on a guy. As good a Storm Cat at stud as there was.

it is incredible that the domino line continues, such a shame that he was lost after just one year. another lost too soon was native dancer at only 17(colic) and dr fager even younger than that, due to colic as well.

man o war made quite a showing considering limited book, and limited mares. but then, no commercial breeding in those days, and very small foal crops.
and how ironic that he stood in ky, a place still considered 'out west' by many--and never raced there. too bad he missed the ky derby. we'd have an even dozen tc winners!

I know this is morbid curiosity on my part but what happens to the body in this situation? In terms of laying Hennessy to rest after dying while abroad I mean.

I haven't a clue but I would assume he'd be buried at the farm in SA where he died. What do you think a daughter of his would be worth ?

I don't know, but I can definitely see the interest in Johannesburg and Wiseman's Ferry going up since this happened.

Madcap Escapade was a 160k purchase at KEE Sept, but sold for 6 million as a broodmare prospect.