Skip Away Dies of Heart Attack

[two gun sid]

From the Bloodhorse:
Skip Away, a three-time Eclipse Award winner and 1998 Horse of the Year, died the morning of May 14 of an apparent heart attack at Rick Trontz’ Hopewell Farm near Midway, Ky.

The son of Skip Trial, out of the Diplomat Way mare Ingot Way, was 17 years old. As a sire, he is represented by 20 stakes winners. He stood at Hopewell Farm since his retirement following his 1998 campaign.

"He was a tough horse," said Trontz. "He never showed any signs but he had a heart condition for years. Some people didn’t expect him to live as long as he did. He was a durable and hard-knocking sire and racehorse."

Skip Away raced for Carolyn Hine and was trained by Hubert "Sonny" Hine. He won 18 of 38 races and earned $9,616,360--third best on the all-time North American money list behind Curlin and Cigar—and was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2004.

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/57023/skip-away-dies-of-heart-attack



Haskin's nice piece from today's Bloodhorse:
* In an unrelated matter, our condolences to Carolyn Hine on the death of her beloved Skip Away. Carolyn, who has been recuperating from knee replacement surgery, was planning to travel, and her first order of business was to visit “Skippy” at Hopewell Farm. She has to be devastated, as Skip Away had become an everlasting link to her late husband, Sonny, who trained the 1998 Horse of the Year. Carolyn’s greatest thrill was seeing “the two men in my life” inducted into the Hall of Fame. This is a wound that will never heal and we grieve along with her, as Skippy was one of our favorite horses of all time, and as tough and rugged as any horse we’ve ever seen. It is hard to fathom his heart ever giving out. He also was a major part of our daughter’s childhood. We brought her to visit Skip Away, Sonny, and Carolyn and their family of cats on numerous occasions, and those memories will never die.

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/57027/preakness-doings-me-and-julio
One of my favorite horses of the '90's. He was truly one of the greats. My condolences to Carolyn Hine. - two gun sid