The 1995 Golden Slipper winner and champion sire Flying Spur died on Tuesday night aged 25, Arrowfield Stud has announced.
Flying Spur was trained by Lee Freedman to win the Golden Slipper and he added the Australian Guineas and All Aged Stakes to his Group One tally before being retired to stud.
Bred at John Messara’s Arrowfield Stud near Scone in the NSW Hunter Valley, Flying Spur carried the farm’s famous racetrack silks before joining his birthplace’s stallion roster after standing his first season in Victoria.
A son of breed-shaping stallion Danehill, Flying Spur made an immediate impact at stud, ending 1999-2000 as Australia’s leading first-season sire.
Flying Spur claimed the general sires’ premiership in 2007, the year his daughter Forensics won the Golden Slipper.
Declining fertility led to Flying Spur’s retirement from stud duties in 2012 but his legacy continued this season as the sire of the Caulfield Cup winner Boom Time.
We are deeply saddened to announce the death overnight of our beloved Champion Sire, Flying Spur (1992-2018).
One of the pillars of Arrowfield, he signs off like the great Australian Sir Donald Bradman on 99 stakeswinners. #RIP pic.twitter.com/jUV2LQm1GK
— Arrowfield Stud (@ArrowfieldStud) May 9, 2018
