Report: 25-year-old Grade 1 winner Perfect Drift is euthanized

Perfect Drift, a seven-time graded-stakes winner who earned more than $4.7 million during the ’00s, was euthanized Friday, according to a BloodHorse report.

Dr. Bryan Reed, who inherited Stonecrest Farm from his parents, told BloodHorse’s Byron King he was worried the 25-year-old gelding would not fully recover from a right-hock injury suffered in 2020. It was only recently, Reed said, that complications from the paddock mishap were diagnosed again.

Bred and owned by Stonecrest, Perfect Drift was the picture of durability, fashioning a record of 50: 11-14-7 with earnings of $4,714,213, according to Equibase.

Sired by Dynaformer, Perfect Drift was a reliable presence every fall in the Breeders’ Cup Classic with five consecutive runs including a third-place result in 2005. That also was the outcome in the 2002 Kentucky Derby. His biggest win came in the 2003 Stephen Foster Handicap (G1) at Churchill Downs.

Perfect Drift was trained first by Australia native Murray Johnson before he was sent west from Kentucky to the California stable of Hall of Famer Richard Mandella to finish his career in 2008.