Grade 1 winner and stallion Discreet Cat dies at 20

Discreet Cat, a Grade 1 winner and sire of five individual G1 winners, has been euthanized due to the infirmities of old age at Darley’s Hokkaido base. The son of Forestry was 20 years old.

Trained by Saeed bin Suroor for Godolphin, who acquired him after he broke his maiden at Saratoga at age 2, Discreet Cat chalked up five straight victories during an unbeaten 3-year-old campaign.

He commenced it with a pair of wins at Nad Al Sheba, the latter being a six-length romp in the UAE Derby (G2). Upon returning to the U.S., he went on to win the Jerome Handicap (G2) by an astounding 10 1/2 lengths.

Discreet Cat’s finest victory on the racecourse came in the Cigar Mile (G1), where he equalled the track record at Aqueduct.

Discreet Cat initially retired to Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Kentucky, where he sired 62 stakes performers including G1 winners Discreet Marq, Dads Caps, Secret Compass and Secret Spice. He also successfully shuttled to Brazil, siring G1 winner Taksim among his 16 stakes performers.

He relocated to Japan in 2017, where he sired recent Keio Hai Nisai (G2) winner Obamburumai. 2022 was his best year yet in Japan, with 23 juvenile winners and eight black type performers.

Harry Sweeney, president of Darley in Japan said, “This has been a very tough day for us at Darley Japan. Though Discreet Cat was already 14 years old when he arrived in Japan, he was nevertheless embraced by Japanese breeders and covered more than 750 mares during his sojourn here. The resulting progeny have collectively already won more than $20,000,000 on the track. Though primarily a dirt sire, he was also capable of getting elite turf performers which further heightened his appeal. Indeed, one such horse, Obamburumai, was narrowly beaten into third in the NHK Mile Cup (G1) earlier this month.

“Discreet Cat was a very gentle horse and was a pleasure to work with. There were plenty of tears in our stallion barn today.”