Officer, champion racehorse in the United States, and long time Korea-based stallion, has passed away, the Korea Racing Authority has announced. He was twenty-six.
A KRA Jeju Stud Farm official said on Friday: “Officer was in good health until very recently but passed peacefully in his paddock on August 1st of natural causes. His halter will be preserved in the stallion memorial garden at the farm.”
By Bertrando and out of St. Helens Shadow (Septieme Ciel), Officer was a winner of six of nine starts on the track, including the G1 Champagne Stakes, the G2 Del Mar Futurity and the G3 Best Pal as part of a brilliant juvenile campaign in 2001.
Following his retirement from racing, Officer stood at both Gainesway and Taylor Made Farms in Kentucky. His American offspring included the similarly precocious Boys At Tosconova, winner of the G1 Hopeful Stakes in 2010, and Princess Violet, who won the 2015 G1 Madison Stakes, the latter coming long after her sire had left the US. He was purchased by the Korea Racing Authority in 2010, arriving in the country in October of that year.
Standing for seven full seasons, Officer’s highest Korean earner was World Sun, who won the Minister’s Cup, the final leg of the Triple Crown in 2018. Officer also produced that year’s Korean champion juvenile, King Socks. Other notable offspring included the eight-time winning mare Ace Marine, as well as fellow Stakes winners Roller Blade and Dokki Blade.
Officer stood mainly at the Jeju Stud Farm but also spent three years based at Jangsu Stud Farm on the South Korean mainland. He was pensioned from Stud duties in 2018 and returned to the KRA Jeju Stud Farm where he spent his retirement.
Other pensioned stallions remaining with the KRA include Hawk Wing, Peace Rules and Forest Camp.
Horse Racing in Korea 