PAEONIAN SPRINGS, Va. -- Bowl Game, the Eclipse Award winner
as the top male turf horse in 1979, was euthanized Friday at the
age of 32 because of infirmities.
Under the care of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation since
1998, Bowl Game had been living at the farm of TRF President
Johnathan Miller in Paeonian Springs, Va.
Miller said Bowl Game had trouble eating over the past week, but
had been receiving intravenous nutrition and appeared alert when he
was turned out Thursday morning.
"It was a beautiful, sunny day and he was out in the pasture
and got two-thirds of the way up the hill, and just lay down,"
Miller said. "He was in some distress and it was clear to us that
the time had come."
At 5-years-old, Bowl Game won the Grade I Washington D.C.
International, the Grade I Turf Classic, the Grade I Man o'War, two
other stakes races, and earned the Eclipse Award in 1979. He was
retired in 1980 due to a tendon problem.
A bay gelding, he won 11 of 23 career starts, earning $907,083.
He was taken in by the TRF upon the death of owner Mrs. John Hay
Whitney, the matriarch of Greentree Stable.
Bowl Game will be buried on Miller's farm.