'85 BC Turf Runner Bob Back Dies

Bob Back, a Kentucky-bred son of Roberto who contested the second Breeders’ Cup Turf (gr. IT), was euthanized last month, according to the Racing Post. He was 30.

Joseph Allen was the breeder of Bob Back, who was sold for $150,000 at the 1982 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale and was sent to Ireland that year.

Bob Back was a group winner in England and Italy. An Italian champion at 2, he went on to place in the Derby Italiano (It-I) as a 3-year-old and win the Premio Presidente Della Repubblica (It-I) at 4. In consecutive starts in England, he won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (Eng-II) over the filly Pebbles and finished third in Pebbles’ Coral Eclipse (Eng-I) triumph. Bob Back also was group stakes-placed in Ireland and France.

Returned to the United States for the 1985 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Aqueduct, Bob Back prepped for the race in the Man o’ War Stakes (gr. IT). Racing for owner Bruce McNall, he finished second. In the Breeders’ Cup, Bob Back proved no match for Pebbles as she won and he finished unplaced.