Silverfoot, the aptly-named gelding who became a fan favorite in turf marathons at tracks in Kentucky and throughout the Midwest, was euthanized Tuesday morning at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital due to complications of aging and the debilitating hoof disease laminitis. He was 20 and had been spending the past decade in retirement, most recently at Ballyrankin Stud in Lexington.
Bred by owner Stephanie Clark and campaigned in the name of her Chrysalis Stables, Silverfoot won 11 of 40 starts spread over 10 seasons with trainer Dallas Stewart, earning $949,503 before his 2010 retirement.
“Silverfoot was a true champion,” Clark said. “I owe him so much. He gave me so many heartfelt moments.”
Silverfoot's five graded-stakes victories included three straight in Churchill Downs' Grade 3 Louisville Handicap at 1 3/8 miles, starting with his stakes debut in 2004. His richest score came in Kentucky Downs' $200,000 Kentucky Cup Turf in 2005, when he defeated the Grade 3, 1 1/2 mile stakes' two-time winner Rochester by 6 3/4 lengths. After missing his entire 7-year-old season with an injury, Silverfoot returned at age 8 to win Arlington Park's Grade 3 Stars and Stripes. His last of six stakes victories overall came as a 9-year-old in Arlington Park's Tin Man Stakes.
While not the best horse in his division, the gelding became one of the most popular, with his longevity and striking almost-white coat, flowing flaxen tail, and normally a late running style. It was largely all or nothing with Silverfoot, who accrued one second and two thirds in his long career while racing against America's top turf horses. His second came by only three-quarters of a length to 2004 Breeders' Cup Turf winner Better Talk Now in Monmouth Park's Grade 1 United Nations in 2005, a race in which Silverfoot uncharacteristically found himself on the lead in a race devoid of pace.
“Very sad to hear,” Stewart said of Silverfoot's passing. “He was and is truly one of my favorites.”
Silverfoot was foaled at and spent much of his retirement in a life of leisure on Ann Britt's Maresgate Farm in Finchville. The horse came by his ethereal coloring honestly, being a son of the roan or gray turf champion With Approval (a son of the gray Caro) and out of Clark's roan mare Northern Silver, herself a daughter of the silver-looking Silver Ghost.
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