According to the Paulick Report: https://www.paulickreport.com/news/bloodstock/we-are-all-extremely-saddened-winstar-farm-stallion-pioneerof-the-nile-dies-suddenly-at-13/
Just got the Bloodhorse alert
only 13 yoa
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the headline. Just absolutely heartbreaking. From what I read on bloodhorse it sounds like something cardiac related. Oh man…this one hurts. R.I.P Pioneer Of The Nile. Go race with the great ones in the sky.
I can’t imagine how helpless they must have felt. Godspeed
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So very sad. A tremendous loss, condolences for all of his connections. :no:
Very very sad. From what little I have read, it sounds as though he had a nice temperament (on top of his obvious super star status as a sire). The whole thing must be heartbreaking for the folks who took care of him day in and day out.
Such heartbreaking news.
He was proving to be such an excellent sire who was good at throwing a pleasant temperament in addition to track performance.
Condolences to all his connections…
I didn’t see any specific mention in the BH article about a cardiac issue other than the brief description that he become uncomfortable after covering a mare and died on the way to the clinic. Cardiac may be a reasonable guess but based on the information provided, still only conjecture.
How awful. He was still owned by his breeder wasn’t he?
They must be devastated.
Brings to mind the death Harlan’s Holiday, hopefully not as gruesome, but they were around the same age. Too young.
What a loss. He was so young, too. I remember liking him in his year’s Kentucky Derby.
I can’t believe it.
Wow what a loss for the industry
I was lucky enough to see him at Winstar a few years ago. Great brain. Fed him peppermints. Such a loss for all of us!
Read that preliminary autopsy says heart attack.
Such a shame and a tremendous loss. I know Zayat and the Winstar team are grieving the loss of a horse they loved very much. A horse who changed Winstar and a horse that changed the Zayat’s lives forever.
I do have to wonder when the TB industry is going to step up to the plate and start doing A.I. and ensure parentage by DNA> Its 2019;get with the program. All this breeding multiple mares a day, almost every day of the week takes a tremendous toll on stallions physically. Granted any horse can die from a heart attack, it’s one of those sad and unexpected things. But the breeding stallions in KY seem to have much more instances of heart attack from breeding than many. One collection can breed multiple mares and would allow stallions to rest several days in-between collections instead of breeding many mares everyday/ every week. In addition, if a stallion did pass unexpectedly, their semen would be available as long as supply lasts. We could still be breeding Scat Daddy’s today. It’s a discussion that needs to be had and its about time that the Jockey Club digs themselves out of their Victorian era crypt and gets on board with modern day breeding practices.
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The JC does ensure parentage through DNA.
As for AI, that conversation has been had numerous times. The JC doesn’t insist on live cover because they are Victorian in outlook but rather because it helps ensure diversity in the breed.
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I agree with you on some level because I thought it was ridiculous that I had to send a mare to Kentucky instead of getting an Equitainer back. But that said, it was the system I chose to work in and I can’t say I was surprised.
However I would stop short of speculating about the cause of this without proof. Seattle Slew’s sire died at 7 and he wasn’t being shuttled. Bold Reasoning’s sire died at 10. I remember wondering when Seattle Slew went to stud whether he would make it to the double digits in age. (Yeah I’m old). Easy Goer was pretty young and then there is Swale who never bred a mare.
I see this more as a ball player with an undetected heart condition who suddenly and shockingly dies. Unfortunately it happens. Bad stuff isn’t always someone’s fault
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Agree - Bad stuff just happens. Sudden death also happens to jumpers and eventers, and other sport horses, who are not breeding horses. Had a TB dressage horse (never on the track) who made it to 24 but I ultimately lost him to congestive heart failure. Fortunately for me I had time to prepare and make a decision for him.
I believe this probably made more sense before it was simple to FedEx a horse across the country or even across the pond. People would use local stallions, etc. But now that transport is a snap? I’m not sure they’re accomplishing their intended goal.
That said, I’m just a nobody looking from the outside in. 
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Equine transportation is certainly possible but it’s neither easy nor cheap. Cost to ship a mare from CA to KY and back by air is ~ $6,000. (That’s the only route I’ve ever done–others are obviously more or less.) A mare that travels a long distance to be bred (presumably with her young foal at her side) is at more risk or injury, disease, or of not getting in foal or losing the pregnancy. It’s doable but it’s not the “snap” you imagine it to be.
Compare that to sitting in your west coast home and dialing up some sperm from a KY stallion. Much less expense and risk for both owner and mare.
With AI, the books of the top stallions would probably go up exponentially (assuming at AI lowered prices which it probably would.) Meanwhile many, many other stallions who are now breeding healthy books would never see another mare.
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Stallion heart attacks connected with breeding are not uncommon. Early to mid-teens seem to be the age that the stallions die. Nasrullah died after breeding at 14; I can think of several more. Breeding is hard on stallions, don’t forget. There may be certain lines that are genetically more susceptible to sudden death after breeding/heavy exertion as well, but little or no research that I’m aware of has been done on that.
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JC is still getting their desired goal of diversity regardless of how easy a horse is to transport with their instance on live cover vs AI.
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