Singspiel, a champion turf horse and successful English-based sire, was euthanized Friday because of laminitis, Darley Stud said.
A son of In the Wings, Singspiel was 18 and died in England, where he had stood until March at Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum’s Dalham Hall stud farm, part of Maktoum’s global Darley operation.
In March, the farm had announced it had withdrawn Singspiel from its active stallion roster because of low fertility, believed to be an effect of an undisclosed illness. Last month, the organization’s stallion director, Sam Bullard, said Singspiel’s fertility had not recovered, and the farm was contemplating retiring him altogether from stud duty.
In a statement announcing the stallion’s death, Darley said Singspiel “developed laminitis following a long illness, and, on Friday, the difficult decision was taken to euthanize him.”
A Maktoum homebred, Singspiel- was foaled at Kildangan Stud in Ireland. Trained by Michael Stoute, he won a combined four Grade or Group 1 races in 1996 and 1997: the Canadian International, Juddmonte International and Coronation Cup in England, and the Japan Cup at Tokyo. He also won the second running of the Dubai World Cup in 1997, defeating Siphon, and finished second behind Pilsudski in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf. Singspiel was voted 1996’s champion turf male.
He won a total of eight stakes and placed in seven others in a career that earned him more than $5.9 million.
At stud, Singspiel sired a dozen Group 1 winners. Among those are 2007’s champion grass mare, Lahudood; the 2003 Dubai World Cup winner, Moon Ballad; and English champion Dar Re Mi, the third-place finisher in last season’s Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Singspiel was out of the three-time champion and 1980’s Canadian Horse of the Year, Glorious Song, by Halo, making him a member of an outstanding family. The mare, a full sister to juvenile champion Devil’s Bag and the late sire Saint Ballado, also is the dam of Singspiel’s half-brother Rahy, a prominent broodmare sire in North America.
