2005 American Horse of the Year
April 13 - Saint Liam
Maybe the most star-crossed horse ever. he won the Breeders' Cup Classic at Belmont Park sealing his claim as the Horse of the Year. He went to stud at Lane's End and had one crop of foals before his foolish habit of rearing up, led to a fatal accident. In that one foal crop, he produced a Horse of the Year of his own in the filly / mare Havre de Grace. Saint Liam was going to be the horse that continued his sire, Saint Ballado's lineage.
Saint Liam was raced by a true gentleman in William Warren. He named him Saint Liam in honor of his father. The family built the Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, OK.
(Almost 15 years later, Mr. Warren would have another great runner in City of Light who was both a Breeders' Cup and Pegasus winner. This year's Kentucky Derby will feature a City of Light colt named Fierceness. You've been told - keep an eye on this horse.)
Saint Liam was the brilliant Horse of the Year for 2005, a sleek bay who put together one of the most consistent campaigns in modern handicap racing. He was foaled in 2000, a son of the stallion Saint Ballado out of the mare Quiet Dance, who came from a top class family. He raced for William and Suzanne Warren along with their partners, and his career was guided in his championship season by trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey rode him to most of his biggest wins.
Saint Liam had shown promise as a younger horse, but he truly bloomed at age five in 2005. He kicked off his championship year with a powerful win in the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park. Through the spring and summer he kept on rolling, winning the Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs and then the Woodward Stakes at Belmont Park. Each of those wins came against the best older horses in the country, and Saint Liam kept proving he was the leader of the division.
The crowning moment of his career came on a chilly afternoon at Belmont Park in October 2005, when Saint Liam captured the Breeders' Cup Classic. With Jerry Bailey in the saddle, he ran down a strong field that included Flower Alley to take racing's richest American prize. The win sealed his Horse of the Year honors. Saint Liam finished his championship season with earnings of nearly $4.5 million and a reputation as one of the most reliable Grade 1 horses of his era.
Tragedy struck when Saint Liam retired to stud at Lane's End Farm. He covered his first book of mares in the spring of 2006, but he developed laminitis and was lost just months into his stud career. From that single crop came the wonderful filly Havre de Grace, herself a Horse of the Year, along with several other stakes winners. Saint Liam is remembered as both a champion of the racetrack and as a stallion whose loss left a real hole in the breeding world after such a promising start.
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