Champion Lost in the Fog was already suffering from terminal cancer when he captured the Aristides beneath top weight of 124 pounds in June (Michael J. Marten/Horsephotos.com)

Last year's champion sprinter LOST IN THE FOG (Lost Soldier) was euthanized on Sunday, according to The Blood-Horse. Trainer Greg Gilchrist had just finished grazing Lost in the Fog outside his barn at Golden Gate Fields when the four-year-old went into distress.

"We accomplished what we wanted to do," Gilchrist said Monday. "It was all about giving him quality (time). We did everything we could for him. He was happy and content right up to the end. He went quietly and easily."

Lost in the Fog was diagnosed with three inoperable cancerous tumors in August. After steroid treatment failed to shrink the tumors, a course of chemotherapy began September 7.

Gilchrist originally sent Lost in the Fog to the University of California-Davis (UCD) veterinary school on August 13 to be treated for a suspected mild case of colic, but doctors discovered a mass on his spleen that they believed to be lymphomic. The tumor on his spleen measured approximately 14 1/2 by 10 inches, the size of a football, according to Dr. Gary Magdesian, chief of equine medicine at UCD's large animal clinic.

Later that week, two more tumors were discovered. The smaller one was found in the membrane surrounding the spleen, and a larger one was discovered in his back, just under his spine. Doctors believe the tumors had been growing for at least four months and possibly as long as a year.