Champion sire More Than Ready is euthanized at 25

Prominent international stallion More Than Ready was euthanized early Friday at 25 “due to the cumulative effects of old age,” breeder WinStar Farm said in a statement.

“More Than Ready was an amazing horse who touched everyone he came in contact with,” said Elliott Walden, president, CEO, and racing manager of WinStar Farm. “He may not have been the biggest horse in the barn, but he more than made up for it in class, balance, and character. His expressions said it all. We will greatly miss him at the farm.”

The son of Southern Halo out of the Woodman mare Woodman’s Girl, More Than Ready was a champion sire in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and one of the youngest stallions in history to attain 100 stakes winners and 1,000 winners.

The champion juvenile sire in the U.S. in 2010 and the leading sire of 2-year-olds in Australia in 2007-08 and again in 2008-09 sired graded stakes winners in 12 countries, Grade 1 winners in seven, and has more black-type winners than any North American sire in history with 216.

His progeny – including 100 graded stakes winners, 30 Grade 1 winners, and 13 champions - have racked up more than $219 million in worldwide earnings.

Further testament of his ability to sire versatile runners at the industry’s highest levels, More Than Ready is the No. 1 Sire of Breeders’ Cup winners in history with seven wins in the marquee event, accomplished with six different winners of four different races at both sprint and route distances. Uni (GB) won the 2019 Mile (G1); Roy H captured the Sprint (G1) in 2017 and 2018; Rushing Fall won the 2017 BC Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1); Regally Ready annexed the 2011 Turf Sprint (G1); More Than Real won the 2011 Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1), and Pluck was triumphant in that year’s Juvenile Turf (G1).

A dual-hemisphere shuttler and perhaps the most shuttled stallion ever, More Than Ready made an impact all around the globe, shuttling between WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., and Vinery Stud in Australia. He stood his initial season in Australia in 2001 and his last Southern Hemisphere crop are yearlings this year.

More Than Ready’s lifetime leading earners—all of them G1 winners—include More Joyous (NZ), an earner of $4,506,154 and an eight-time G1 winner; Roy H, who banked $3,139,765; Eagle Way (AUS), an earner of $2,955,998; and Rushing Fall, who earned $2,893,000. Also among his chief earners are Golden Slipper (G1) winners Phelan Ready (AUS) with earnings of $2,809,560, and Sebring (AUS), an earner of $2,365,522.

Before his career as a stallion, More Than Ready was a top-class racehorse. Trained during his racing career by Todd Pletcher for owner James Scatuorchio, More Than Ready captured the seven-furlong King’s Bishop S. (G1) at Saratoga in 2020 at three and he also won that year’s Hutcheson S. (G2) at Gulfstream Park. In a stellar juvenile season in 1999 in which he won 5-of-7 starts, More Than Ready won the Sanford S. (G2) by 9 ¾ lengths and the Tremont S. (G1) by 4 ½ lengths. All told in his career, he amassed earnings of $1,026,229 and retired to stud with a record of 17-7-4-1.

Larry McGinnis, longtime stallion manager at WinStar Farm, said of More Than Ready’s passing, “To me, he was more than a great stallion, he was a great friend. It was an honor to take care of such a remarkable horse. I will miss him.”