CHAMPION FLANDERS DEAD
By Ray Paulick
Flanders, the 1994 Eclipse Award-winning juvenile filly who defeated stablemate Serena’s Song in one of the most exciting editions of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies ever run, was euthanized in mid-February after complications arose following a paddock accident in December at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
The daughter of Seeking the Gold out of the Storm Bird mare Starlet Storm had been purchased by Coolmore boss John Magnier for $400,000 from the Overbrook Farm dispersal, with Eaton Sales as agent, during the Keeneland November breeding stock sale in 2009. She was 18 at the time of her death.
Bred and owned by the late William T. Young’s Overbrook Farm and trained by D. Wayne Lukas, Flanders finished first in all five of her starts at two, including four Grade 1 races—the Spinaway, Matron, Frizette and Juvenile Fillies. A positive test for the therapeutic medication isoxsuprine, used for circulation problems in a horse’s foot—disqualified Flanders from her victory in the Matron.
While she finished first by a combined margin of 36 1/2 lengths in her first four races (including a 21-length win in the Frizette), it was her duel against Serena’s Song–who went on to win an Eclipse Award the following year and later induction into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame—that endeared Flanders to so many racing fans and horsemen. Hooked throughout the 1 1/16-mile Juvenile Fillies by Serena’s Song and appearing beaten in the final furlong, Flanders dug down and battled back to win by a head over her stablemate in what proved to be her final race. She pulled up lame under jockey Pat Day after the finish and never made it back to the winner’s circle. Flanders had surgery the following day for a displaced condylar fracture of the cannon bone and an axial fracture of the sesamoid in her right front ankle. She was subsequently retired to Overbrook Farm.
Click here to see a video of the Flanders-Serena’s Song duel in the Breeders’ Cup.
Flanders’ first foal, Surfside, a daughter of Seattle Slew went on to be a multiple Grade 1 winner and champion 3-year-old filly of 2000. She produced several other winners, including Battle Plan, a 5-year-old son of Empire Maker who has won three of four starts for trainer Todd Pletcher and is aiming for the Oaklawn Park Handicap this spring following an impressive allowance win at Gulfstream Park Feb. 18. He is one of a small number of horses bred by Overbrook that were not included in the dispersal.
Flanders produced a Bernardini colt last month, but developed complications from the paddock accident and could not be saved. Thoroughbred Times reported she developed laminitis. The colt has been placed with a nursemare.
“Flanders was a gorgeous mare,” said Chris Young, the grandson of William T. Young who manages the remaining Overbrook horses. “She was one of my absolute favorites—probably had the best personality of any mare I’ve ever been around. I understand she was the one mare John Magnier really wanted from our dispersal, and it’s really a shame they lost her.”
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Tags: ashford stud, Battle Plan, chris young, coolmore, eaton sales, eclipse award, empire maker, flanders, Frizette, gulfstream park, john magnier, juvenile fillies, Keeneland, Matron, National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, oaklawn park, overbrook farm, pat day, Ray Paulick, seattle slew, seeking the gold, Serena's Song, Spinaway, Starlet Storm, Storm Bird, surfside, todd pletcher, william t. young
March 1st, 2010 at 3:54 pm
The BC race between Flanders and Serena’s Song left such an impression on me, and to this day it’s my favorite of many moments. I’m absolutely heartbroken we lost Flanders. Rest In Peace, beautiful girl.
March 1st, 2010 at 3:57 pm
“Flanders was a gorgeous mare,” said Chris Young, the grandson of William T. Young who manages the remaining Overbrook horses. “She was one of my absolute favorites—probably had the best personality of any mare I’ve ever been around. I understand she was the one mare John Magnier really wanted from our dispersal, and it’s really a shame they lost her.”
NO, what’s really a shame is that you didn’t have the decency to keep this OLD mare and give her the retirement she deserved! She was such an “absolute favorite”. REALLY?
This is a perfect example of how “valued” horses are in this industry. And be sure and watch how relentlessly Flanders was whipped during that BC race! She didn’t “dig down” she was mercilessly beaten!!! She was very lucky she survived to see another day.
March 1st, 2010 at 4:11 pm
In fairness to Overbrook, the point of a dispersal is to disperse.
Nor was Flanders really old. Broodmares frequently live to their mid- and late-20s, and Brown Berry even produced a French Derby winner (Hours After) when she was 25.
She was a lovely mare, and it’s a shame she’s gone.
March 1st, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Wow….the cruelty and insensitivity of some people is amazing.
LCM you must just hate your life to be so vile. Why don’t you just go into a crowded building and start cursing at the world. You are a sad human being.
Flanders had the heart of a champion and all you can do is knock anyone who had anythng to do with her.
March 1st, 2010 at 4:47 pm
To LCM: Why the negative diatribe regarding Flanders? Very simply, when owners die, their assets (including horses) are often dispersed. Being bought by Coolmore is very far from an unfortunate fate. Ever been there? Coolmore horsese always look fabulous and are treated extremely well. Furthermore, a broodmare at age 18 does not necessarily need “retiring”. Under your thinking, this world would never have seen the likes of Secretariat (check the age of his dam when Secretariat was born). It all depends on the health and condition of the mare. Please remember that there are many horsemen who take excellent care of their horses, even after the horses’ useful days are actually over. (Several of my own ex-racehorses are happily turned out and living a content & healthy life on my tab thank you). Meanwhile, I hope you are supporting the work being done by Old Friends for retired racehorses.
March 1st, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Whatever is wrong LCM, it will get better my friend.
March 1st, 2010 at 4:59 pm
I would like to mention that if Flanders foal was put on a nurse mare what happened to the nurse mares foal? I don’t know how many of you out there know this but there are unethical people that breed mares every year just to to supply the nurse mare industry. This is to make sure that a nurse mare will be available for a expensive foal. From what I understand the nurse mares foal is tossed out to starve or it is killed. Sometimes rescues have taken them to hand raise but they can’t save all of them. This is brought about because the Jockey Club refuses to allow the mares to be bred using artificial insemination. So these new born babies are thrown on the trash pile. For shame.
March 1st, 2010 at 5:04 pm
It is now possible to “produce” a nurse mare via hormone injection rather than the traditional way.
This is such a shame. I loved Flanders and had the pleasure of meeting her at Overbrook. She will be very, very missed.
March 1st, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Barb3000 & LCM, have you been out in the cold so long that your brains are frozen?
March 1st, 2010 at 5:40 pm
I understand where LCM is coming from. An 18 year old broodmare sold for 400,000 (cha ching) and within a month is fatally injured in an unfamiliar paddock with new paddock mates far from the only home she has known for the past what–15 years. I wonder how much of the 400,000 was put into a fund in Flanders’ name to help homeless thoroughbreds by the man who calls her “one of my absolute favorites”. Please define “absolute favorite” for us Chris Young.
You are absolutely right about nurse mares Barb3000.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Geesh,Ray,can’t ya screen these off-the-wall activists.I am so sick of coming here and trying to read an informational blog about an industry I’m involved in and it being hi-jacked by a bunch of narrow minded activists walking around with closed blinkers on that have a hard time thinking for themselves and become self appointed juries and judges.I can say in 35 years of breeding horses BARB3000 I have never seen a farm that does that with their nurse mares for hire.And as far as LLK & Upstart,what makes you two so high & mighty that any thoroughbred owner is supposed to answer to you ???Chris Young doesn’t have to explain anything to anyone—a dispersal is just that.
Great mare with a lot of heart,I was really hoping a lot of the Overbrook stock would find new lives,I often questioned how some of them were mated in the breeding shed and pretty much thought that a lot of them would be bred more selectively in the future.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Whoops,sorry about that LLK - I meant LCM.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Ray,I must say,your site really attracts some winners(See posts 10,7,and 2)Sometimes I think this is a PETA site.
March 1st, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Why are some folks so cynical and so critical of matters they don’t understand?
Not a-one of y’all nasty anonymous screen-name ladies has ever galloped a TB racehorse. Y’all don’t approve of racing, don’t like TB breeding farms, not gonna keep an open mind by any means, you. (FYI “Upstart,” Secretariat’s mama Somethingroyal was 18 when she produced him. Luckier than Flanders, Somethingroyal died age 31.) And does anyone who’s ever galloped racehorses anywhere but the Podunk Fair Circuit (or maybe PHA) believe that ‘whipping’ a horse (especially a filly) will induce it to go faster than it wants to? What a cruel and demeaning thing to say about the late, great Flanders.
No one will deny that the TB racing industry has its share of abusers, but most of us take excellent care of our horses, and we’re dedicated to fixing our problems. RIP beautiful, valiant Flanders. I lost a lovely mare (unraced but fill sister to a G1 winner) in a similar accident. She broke her leg in her paddock one afternoon, same paddock she’d lived been put into every day for her entire adult life.
March 1st, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Oops. Meant to say “full” sister, not “fill” sister. Holly was unraced, had been a nice show hunter, and then at a relatively young age broke her leg for no reason we could find. So…
Maybe, all you anti-racing trolls, we should stop turning horses out!?!???
I’m with you JCBloodstock and Johnny Mack. Sick of these people. This is a racing website. That’s why I opened this discussion: TO READ TRIBUTES TO FLANDERS, NOT TO SEE A BUNCH OF IGNORANT NONSENSE.
March 1st, 2010 at 7:58 pm
RIP beautiful lady. I remember seeing you run like it was yesterday. And thanks for giving us Surfside, one of my favs.
March 1st, 2010 at 8:07 pm
I am so sorry to hear of the loss of FLANDERS ! PLease give her groom and others close to her , a hug from me. Praise be that you have her foal AND could get a nurse mare !
March 1st, 2010 at 9:11 pm
I’m all for animal welfare-I’m probably one of the most bleeding hearts there is. However, I understand that the Young family wanted to get out of the TB business, and I’d rather these older mares were with people who wanted and valued them. I also am knowledgeable enough to know that while there’s a nurse mare industry which I abhor, I also realize that as Alysse #8 says, with the advent of hormone injection therapy that industry will be out of business. I’m not going to jump to the conclusion that Coolmore didn’t pursue that.
Please all of you in the industry don’t think we’re all PETA whack jobs. Some of us get that you can balance the sport with being humane.
It’s a shame this thread bearing such a wonderful horse’s name turned so horrible. Her death was bad enough.
March 1st, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Flanders is the kind of mare most of us can only dream of producing but without that dream its hard to keep going sometimes. I was lucky to be at Churchill when she beat Serena’s Song and its a race I will never forget. Its what the sport is all about.
March 1st, 2010 at 9:52 pm
This was the first Breeders’ Cup I ever attended and a race I will never forget. Just amazing. I don’t want to get all nostalgic but I did get the chance to meet both W. T. Young and Bob Lewis in my career in racing and the game truly misses people like them. We could use some of Bob Lewis’ positive energy and some of W. T.’s graceful statesmanship.
March 2nd, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Flanders died as a result of a paddock accident…an ACCIDENT that could just as easily have happened to your pet pony or a wild mustang. Horses are fragile and accident prone creatures who can find a hundred ways to injure themselves. Anyone who owns horses knows that a playful romp in the paddock can result in life threatening injury. Horses are struck by lightening, hit by cars, struck down by illness and euthanized because of pasture injuries. We can’t encase them in bubble wrap to be stored in their stalls 24/7?
Sad as it is, every living thing has to die one day. Flanders gifted us with talented babies and wonderful memories. Let’s not soil her memory with anti-racing tirades.
RIP sweet girl!
March 2nd, 2010 at 4:48 pm
I sure understand that horses kill themselves 9000 different ways. What’s weird is how she had a paddock accident in December but wasn’t euthanized til Febuary. Makes it sound like the owners dragged her through all kinds of misery just to get one last foal.
Even though I liked Serenas Song better, I definitely respected Flanders for winning the ‘94 Juvenile Fillies. RIP…….
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:06 pm
#22 dance in the dark….You really ARE in the dark to say such a statement “Makes it sound like the owners dragged her through all kinds of misery just to get one last foal”.
That is an evil and ridiculous thing to say. A mare so close to term and a new life on it’s way, OF COURSE an owner would want to see a live foal born !!! That FLANDERS may have been injured doesn’t always mean euthanization would be neccessary at THAT date.
Perhaps she had complications from the injury. Even so, it is the foal who’s genetics are left to carry on the greatness of FLANDERS…so what you are saying is to just let the foal perish along with the mare ? What you said has made me angry & I think you must be truly ignorant to say such a thing. FLANDERS wanted her foal to be born & knew that the foal would be taken care of. Horses that are well cared for instinctively know this . I hope the foal grows up to be every bit as great as her sire & dam…and I hope that you can find yourself dancing out of the darkness that you are in.
March 3rd, 2010 at 12:14 am
my God, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insght at the end there, not leave it with ‘we leave it to you to decide’.
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:29 am
I don’t get it
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:03 pm
To Sunny Farm: I used the phrase “it sounds like” exactly because we don’t know for sure. Yes, I’m disturbed that the possibility is there, but my posting isn’t nearly as bad as some others on this subject.
And honestly, you’re the one who sounds like a moron for saying, “Flanders wanted her foal to be born and knew it would be taken care of.” Horses are capable of many great things, but I highly doubt they can predict the future and “know” how life will turn out for their offspring.
Just like you, I hope Flanders’ last foal grows up to be as beautiful and talented as his parents. So try to relax a bit instead of being adversarial towards anyone who doesn’t say what you want to hear.