Beautiful Pleasure Succumbs to Laminitis

Beautiful Pleasure, voted the 1999 champion older female after winning the Breeders' Cup Distaff, has been euthanized in Kentucky because of complications from laminitis. The 16-year-old Maudlin mare produced a Medaglia d'Oro colt in February but was plagued for months by the debilitating disease. She spent several weeks in a clinic and appeared to be on course for recovery but the disease's progression in recent months caused her demise.

"She was afforded the ultimate of care from veterinarians and Fawn Leap Farm personnel, but her decline was progressing toward an eminent end, and it was the only humane to end her suffering," said owner John C. Oxley, owner of Fawn Leap.

Beautiful Pleasure concluded her championship season in dramatic fashion. A 4-year-old that year she won the Personal Ensign Handicap over Banshee Breeze and Keeper Hill at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and then took the Beldame Stakes over the famed Silverbulletday in Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., before clinching her title with a score in the Distaff at Gulfstream Park over Banshee Breeze at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.