Danzig dead

DANZIG (Northern Dancer), North America's leading sire of stakes winners, was euthanized Tuesday morning at Claiborne

Farm near Paris, Kentucky, due to the infirmities of old age. He was 29. The

sire of 188 stakes winners and more than 20 champions, Danzig has the highest percentage

of stakes winners from foals (18.3 percent) of any stallion. His progeny have

earned more than $100

million.

Out of multiple stakes winner Pas de Nom (Admiral's Voyage), Danzig was bred in Pennsylvania by Derry Meeting Farm and William S. Farish.

He was

sold at the 1978 Saratoga yearling sale for $310,000 to Henryk de Kwiatkoski and had a short but

spectacular racing career. The bay made three starts for Hall of Fame trainer

Woody Stephens and won them all by a combined

21 3/4 lengths. He was retired to Claiborne in the middle of his

three-year-old season because of knee problems.

Danzig sired three Grade 1-winning two-year-olds in his first crop: Chief's

Crown, Contredance and Stephan's Odyssey. Chief's Crown was named champion

two-year-old colt of 1984. A perennial leading sire from that point on, Danzig

topped the general sire list from 1991-93.

His progeny include champion and

leading sire Danehill; European Horse of the Year Dayjur; two-time

Breeders' Cup Mile (G1) winner Lure; Canadian Horse of the Year, U.S. champion and Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) heroine Dance Smartly; U.S. classic

winners Danzig Connection, Pine Bluff and Stephan's Odyssey; and other notables

such as War Chant, Green Desert, Boundary, Belong to Me, Langfuhr, Bianconi,

Agnes World, Versailles Treaty, Polish Navy, Anabaa, Dispute, Brahms and

Military. He's also the sire of Angel

Fever, dam of 2000 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Fusaichi Pegasus.

As a sire of

sires and a leading broodmare sire, Danzig's impact on the breed is immense.

More than 900 stakes winners have been sired by sons of Danzig.

Danzig was retired from breeding in 2004 due to declining fertility. He

will be buried at Claiborne.