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Champion Pebbles dies American and English champion PEBBLES (GB) (Sharpen Up [GB]), the first British-trained runner to win a Breeders' Cup race, has died in Japan. The 24-year-old mare was euthanized due to the infirmities of old age at Darley's Fukumitsu Farm, where she has been since 1996. She had been in retirement for the last three seasons. Bred by Captain Marcos Lemos, she carried his blue-and-white silks to success for trainer Clive Brittain in the 1984 English One Thousand Guineas (Eng-G1) at Newmarket before being purchased by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. As a four-year-old she beat Rainbow Quest in the Sandown's Eclipse S. (Eng-G1) and Slip Anchor in the Champion S. (Eng-G1) at Newmarket before annexing the Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) in course-record time at Aqueduct. "She was just unbelievable -- a great character," Clive Brittain told PA Sport Friday. "I knew she was special as a foal. The highlight would have to be her victory in the Breeders' Cup Turf, more so because it was over a mile and a half and she wasn't expected to stay. She was just a class above the others. When she won the Eclipse she made the colts like Rainbow Quest look like hacks. She has to be up there among the best fillies I have trained and I've been lucky enough to have a lot of good ones in my care -- User Friendly (GB), Sayyedati (GB) and Crimplene (Ire) to name three." The champion older mare and champion miler in England in 1985, Pebbles also earned the Eclipse Award as champion turf mare that year. She retired at the end of the season with a record of 15-8-5-0 and earnings of $1,429,243. Her record at stud was fairly undistinguished, however, producing just two winners and no stakes performers from her 12 foals.
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