Sad news from the farms as American bred stallion Whywhywhy has passed away aged 17. 

On the racecourse, Whywhywhy [Mr. Greeley – Thorough Fair (Quiet American)] was a stand-out juvenile. Trained by Patrick Biancone, he won three of five races in his two-year-old season in 2002 including the G1 Futurity Stakes at Belmont Park as well as the G3 Flash Stakes at the same track and the G2 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga. He only ran four times as a three-year-old, not picking up any further wins and he was retired midway through 2003.

Whywhywhy proved reasonably successful at stud, siring nine Stakes winners in the USA with the best known being 2007 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Nownownow after which he was standing for a fee of $10,000 at Gainseway Farm. This had dropped to $3,500 by the time he was purchased by Korean interests in 2011. In Korea, he stood privately at Challenger Farm on Jeju Island.

He didn’t sire any superstars in Korea but was producing very solid horses with a win rate comparable to the top sires in the country. He was 13th on the Leading General sire list in 2016 and currently lies in 12th in this year’s table with all eleven stallions ahead of him having had more runners.

Whywhywhy hadn’t covered for the past two seasons due to a leg injury but given his early popularity, it was hoped that he would return to duties. According to the farm where he stood, he had suffered from debilitating back problems for a number of years and it was complications arising from this that led to his early death which occurred on September 1st. A fuller report has been requested.

The loss of Whywhywhy is probably the highest profile in Korea this year but follows the deaths of two pensioned stallions who were prominent in the early development of the Korean breeding industry in the late 1990s, Psychobabble (Carleon) passing in March at the age of 26 and Silent Warrior (Nashwan) in February at age 25.