Hall of Fame member and breed-shaping sire A P Indy died of natural causes in his stable at his longtime home, Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky, on February 21. The son of Seattle Slew was 31.
A P Indy amply fulfilled all the marketing cliches. Regally-bred, a sale-topping yearling who became a classic winner and champion, then imprinting his bloodline as a leading racetrack and commercial sire.
“A.P. Indy passed away peacefully in his stall at the Lane’s End stallion complex, the barn he called home for 27 years,” Lane’s End said in a statement. “Champion A.P. Indy’s list of accomplishments range far and wide, as his legacy continues to be carried through the outstanding performances of his sons and daughters across the globe. He was the most important and popular member of the Lane’s End team, and we are deeply sorry to all who loved him as much as we did.”
Foaled on March 31, 1989, A P Indy was bred in Kentucky by William Farish, in partnership with W.S. Kilroy. He was out of the Secretariat mare Weekend Surprise, the dam of Summer Squall, winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes as a juvenile the year A.P. Indy was born before going on to win the Preakness Stakes after finishing runner-up in the Kentucky Derby.
Unsurprisingly, his current pedigree and film star good looks made him a star attraction at the 1990 Keeneland July yearling sale and he topped the sale at $2.9 million, selling to Tomonori Tsurumaki, who raced him for the majority of his career until a partnership including Lane’s End joined in for his final start.
Trained by Neil Drysdale, A.P. Indy won three of four starts as a juvenile in California, capped by the Grade 1 Hollywood Futurity. In his classic year he would win the Grade 2 San Rafael Stakes and Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, making himself one of the favourites for the 1992 Kentucky Derby.
A quarter crack meant A P Indy would be forced to miss the Derby.
After a brief rest, A.P. Indy returned to the races to win the Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes before extended his winning sequence to seven with victory in the Belmont Stakes.
Rested to recover his foot injury, A P Indy returned to the races with a fifth place finish in the Grade 2 Molson Export Million, then third in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup. Those races set him up for a strong performance in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park which won by two lengths over Gold Cup winner Pleasant Tap, ending the season with Horse of the Year honours, as well as the Eclipse Award as outstanding three-year-old male.
A.P. Indy was retired to Lane’s End for the 1993 breeding season, with a record of eight wins from 11 starts and earnings of $2,979,815. He was subsequently inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2000, alongside Drysdale.
“We wanted to keep him in training,” Farish explained to Daily Racing Form at the time about the decision to retire the colt. “He’s very sound and such a brilliant horse, but it would be taking a tremendous risk with a great sire prospect. So many of our top horses have been retired to Europe or Japan that we need a horse like this to stand in the U.S. Everyone involved concluded that this was the right thing to do.”
A.P. Indy, of course, proved a smashing success as a stallion – so much so that his stud fee reached as high as $300,000 in 2002, where it remained for seven seasons, until the recession that began in late 2008 impacted the bloodstock market.
At stud A P Indy outshone his racetrack performances, siring 164 stakes winners and topping North America’s leading general sire list in 2003, when his son Mineshaft was named Horse of the Year, and again in 2006, thanks chiefly to Bernardini.
Pulpit, who died in 2012, has left three-time leading North American general sire Tapit and another son, the late Lucky Pulpit, sired two-time Horse of the Year and dual classic winner California Chrome.
A P Indy was also the leading broodmare sire of 2015, his daughters producing Eclipse Award champions Royal Delta, Game Winner and Wait a While, Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty, and French Oaks winner Senga, among other top-level performers worldwide.
A.P. Indy was pensioned from stud duty in 2011 due to declining fertility.
“He’ll have influenced the breed for decades to come,” Lane’s End wrote on its official blog at the time. “And what better tribute than that? To know that someday, young students of the game will see the name A.P. Indy, and they will think: ‘Yes. He was one of the greats. He was the stallion that built Lane’s End.’”