1999 Eclipse Award winner Daylami is euthanized at 29

Daylami, winner of the 1999 Eclipse award as champion male turf horse, was euthanized because of the infirmities of old age two weeks short of his 29th birthday.

The distinctive gray son of Doyoun and Daltawa will be long remembered for his globetrotting exploits in both the green and red silks of his breeder the Aga Khan and the blue colors of Godolphin. He won 11 of his 21 starts between 1996 and 1999, only finishing out of the first three on three occasions.

Daylami’s first of seven Group 1 victories came in the 1997 Poule d’Essai des Poulains. He thereafter won the Eclipse Stakes, the Man O’War Stakes, the Coronation Cup, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Irish Champion Stakes before capping a magnificent career by landing the 1999 Breeders’ Cup Turf by 2 1/2 lengths at Gulfstream Park.

He was named the title of Europe horse of the year and Eclipse champion male turf horse, and he rated as the world’s best racehorse of 1999 alongside Montjeu. He was given a Timeform rating of 138.

As a stallion, Daylami spent time in Ireland, France and South Africa, siring the likes of Classic winner Grey Swallow and dual Group 1 winner Voila Ici. He is also the broodmare sire of Group 1 winners such as Arcano, Grand Glory, Logician and Pierro, the latter now a champion sire in Australia.

For the past four years, Daylami had enjoyed a happy retirement with the Aga Khan Studs at his birthplace in Ireland, cared for by his devoted handler Joe Doyle.