Hall of Fame mare Inside Information dies at 26

Claiborne Farm has announced that Inside Information passed away Saturday from natural causes. The champion mare was 26.

Inside Information was bred and owned by Ogden Mill Phipps. By Private Account and out of Pure Profit, by Key to the Mint, Inside Information was born at Claiborne Farm in May 1991. She won 14 of 17 career starts under the care of trainer Shug McGaughey and bankrolled $1,641,806.

At two, Inside Information won her debut at Belmont Park. Improving the next year, she also took the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes and the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes. Her 4-year-old year, and her final year, was the best though. She won four Grade 1 races – the Shuvee Handicap, the Ruffian Handicap, the Spinster Stakes, and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, which she won by 13 ½ lengths, the largest margin of victory in Breeders’ Cup history.

In 1995 she received the Eclipse Award for Champion Older Mare and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008. The following year, Gulfstream Park renamed the Shirley Jones Handicap to the Inside Information Stakes, which is still run today.

When retired from racing, Inside Information returned to Claiborne Farm. There she gave birth to the 2005 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly, Smuggler.

Inside Information will be buried at Claiborne Farm in their Marchmont cemetery.

By Christine Oser