Unconquered Passes at Age 21

Original article written by Marzy Dotes posted 11 years 0 weeks ago

Somewhere underneath a tree in a spacious pasture at Inspiration Stud, Unconquered succumbed to what can’t be defeated and passed away at the age of 21.

The feisty black horse that proved to be just that to the last moment left behind a rich legacy both on the racetrack and inside the breeding shed.
He wasn’t the most successful horse that ever hit the racetrack and he wasn’t a titan at stud. Still, he was one of the most interesting horses to follow because of his proven versatility in both venues and the efforts and sometimes fits he inspired in breeders to figure out what really made him tick.

Sprinter, router or something in the middle or maybe just a nonconformist who defied labeling. A horse after my own heart, maybe that’s why I enjoyed him so much.

On the racetrack and off of it, he kept people guessing and that’s what made him one of my personal favorite of all horses. Because just when some people were so convinced he was one way, he’d do something different and have people wondering all over again.

The stylish dude could dash over the sprints and he could endure the routes up to 1 ½ miles if he had to do it. Hall of Famer Conduit was his daddy and this handsome dark bay horse with the diamond studded hooves loved to dabble at the sprints even though he’s best known for longer distances. But how can you find fault with the speed of a horse who breaks his maiden at 4 ½ furlongs by 14 lengths? Yet he won such classic races as the Queen’s Derby, the Prince of Peace Stakes and the Canadian Breeders’ Stakes which made him the first Canadian Triple Crown winner.

He capped his career by winning the Steward’s Cup Classic before going off to stud. He was a huge success there siring other Hall of Famers like Atlas, Loki Dynasty and Feature Attraction who all became foundational type sires.

Unconquered resulted from a meet up between Conduit during his third year at stud and the perfectly named Undefeated, a daughter of Champion Male Turf Horse Tulloch. This broodmare produced other turf performers including broodmare Never Challenged. This daughter of hers produced the likes of European Horse of the Year Oversized Heart and Never Back Down that both currently at stud.
She also produced a gangly little colt named Unconquered.

On the racetrack, he seemed happiest sprinting over the green. He won his debut in a sprint stakes and also won the Star Studded Stakes while placing second in two others as a juvenile. In his final start, Unconquered ventured into routing and Phar and Free Stakes where he finished behind Tejano Flame. He flirted for a while at the mile distance hitting the board including in the American Handicap and the Woodbine Mile. During the years when most race horses peak, he didn’t win any races but when he turned eight, something glorious happened.

Unconquered found his stride in the incredibly beautiful country of New Zealand where he won three out of his four starts and never finishing worse than second. The Kiwis packed the grandstands of the racetrack and cheered this gallant veteran on home including in his final start, the Remembrance Handicap. Whether wagering money or just chocolate fish, he made a lot of betters very happy.

A statue of the horse that proved you’re never too old to be a winner was erected by the lake in the middle of the racing oval at New Zealand Racetrack and flowers were laid there when news of his passing hit the news wire.
He was bred by Robin Tan and was sold several times until Nikki Everdeen bought him after his retirement and owned him until he passed.

At stud, he sired 230 foals and about half of them won on the racetrack and 13 of his runners won in stakes competition. He’s best known for siring the brilliant turf router, European Horse of the Year July who’s out of the now deceased Moscow Burning. This snappy bay horse won tons of stakes including the Arc De Triomphe Stakes as well as the Steward’s Cup Turf as a three year old, defeating star performers like Feat and Trafalgar who’s blown everyone’s doors off in the fastest Arc De Triomphe until the most recent rendition. At stud, he’s sired the likes of North American Champion Older Male Committee of Five and Matter of Soul who just won the Ireland’s Champion Stakes.

July was a truly great horse and many people believed that his success proved that Unconquered was really a sire of routers. That might very well be true but even so, I’ll always have a soft spot for him because of one of the several successful turf sprinters that he also sired. If siring routers came naturally then perhaps siring sprinters showed a more naughty side but that’s what some of us will remember him for fondly.

When I think of this stalwart horse, I think of my little filly, You Are Bad For Me who was the first really nice horse I ever campaigned. I ran into her at an auction after saving up money through purse earnings and writing articles to finally be able to place a good bid for a nice filly. As much as it’s not cool to admit it, what attracted me to her first was her name. But I also liked Unconquered a lot because he campaigned so well at an age when most horses have already packed it in. In a sport that focuses so much on precocity and youth, you got to admire a horse like that.

After I looked at her and read up on her parents, I bid on her and picked her up at the end of the auction. She’s a plucky filly out of a daughter of Hall of Famer and turf sprinter extraordinaire A Bus whose eclectic breeding might have scared the savvier and wealthier owners away. Still, I was very happy to win her, to finally have a nice horse and I started planning her campaign after I did my happy dance. So often the breeding of a router to a sprinter spells doom or is done by mistake but as it turned out, it worked just fine for her and for me. I think at the time I was too ignorant to know that according to conventional wisdom she was supposed to be a failure on the racetrack.

Some did say she ran in spite of her breeding, but she turned out to be a lot of fun and she won quite a bit of money during her years of racing and that went back to saving up to buy other horses. Maybe she just inherited the pluck of her sire and that’s what drove her home but I had a blast racing her and she pulled me through some tough times.

She also turned out to be one of the best user friendly horses for a new player. One of the most challenging skills for a new player is to figure out how to do race placement which when I started out, I did pretty much with the seat of my pants. But when campaigning stakes quality horses, it’s also important to learn more long range planning of a seasonal schedule. For my first such horse, it was a bumpy ride but at least my filly appeared to inherit some of her sire’s longevity.

You could place her in sprints including stakes and she always tried so hard, running with a pretty fearless front running style against either male or female racers. The greatest thrill was when she won the Wellington Handicap very nicely, the same race that her sire had also won seven years earlier. She’s since retired and gone to the shed turning out turf runners including a daughter of Sockie who’s hit the board in three stakes so far and has a bit of her spirit.

Unconquered had at least one other stakes winning daughter, Unconquered Speed who’s out of an A Bus mare who also spent some time on the South Pacific racing circuit. She captured the Masterton Handicap three years before my filly did. So while he might be the sire of one of the top routers of his generation in July, it’s the little sprinter who taught me much more. She taught me that when you’re new, your first nice horse might be a long time coming. You might have to save up for a while before you can afford a chance but when that day comes, it can be at turning point for you even if the learning curve gets a little bit steeper.

I first wrote about Unconquered quite a while back and it was the first stallion profile that I ever wrote. Alas, the date the article was posted was also his pensioning date. It took a while before I wrote my second ever stallion profile.

It seems like yesterday he was pensioned and now he is gone. But he’s one horse that I’ll always remember as being one of the truly great ones. It’s not just statistics earned, money won or how many trophies line a shelf that define the worth of a racehorse or a stud. Sometimes it’s something more difficult to define, perhaps personal and in the end, maybe it’s really quite simple like making the mark in a new player’s career.

Unconquered, a hard knocking horse who when some stars wilt, aged like fine wine. The type of runner with a yen for the country that’s my second home and a horse who defied any attempts to pin him down with a label while breaking all kinds of rules. If he were a guy, I think he’d make the perfect match.

Rest in peace, dude.

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