A Horse Racing Great, Silver Hawk Passes Away And Leaves A Legacy Of Winners


by Bill Peterson - Date: 2008-06-18 - Word Count: 311 Share This!

There are many ways to measure greatness in horse racing and one of the true measures is how well a stallion or broodmare's foals will run. That being said, few studs produced a greater legacy than Silver Hawk (Roberto-Gris Vitesse by Amerigo) who stood at Airdrie Stud in Midway, Kentucky. Sadly, he was recently euthanized after a long and successful life as a stallion. His racing career was short, just 8 races, but standing at stud he sired 76 stakes winners from 862 foals of racing age. That is an impressive record along with the fact that his foals went on to earn $56,036,229 (to date).

As a horseplayer and racing enthusiast, I loved betting on horses out of Silver Hawk. One particular situation I often found financially lucrative was a first time starter on the turf out of Silver Hawk. Given a few short dirt races and then switched to a long turf race, his "children" often showed good early speed as well as stamina. Smart trainers, like Kathleen O'Connell, for instance, understood that and used that trainer move to win races.

His sire, the great Roberto, was also known as a good turf runner as well as a sire of turf runners who could go a distance. Silver Hawk demonstrated that by winning the Ladbrokes Craven Stakes (Eng-G3) as a three-year-old in 1982 and finished third in the Epsom Derby (Eng-G1) for trainer Michael Albina and owner Buckram Oak Farm. As mentioned before, his career was short but he did win three of his eight lifetime starts and earned $184,099.

In 29 years the great horse produced 21 crops and 39 graded or group stakes winners, a truly international star. Though Silver Hawk's stay on this earth was relatively short, his contribution to horse racing will continue. Thank you, Silver Hawk, we'll enjoy watching your progeny and your star will forever shine.

Related Tags: betting on horses, horse racing, stakes winners, horseplayer, switched to a long turf race, dirt races, stallion or boodmare, silver hawk

Learn how an insider handicaps horse races by visiting Bill Peterson's website williewins.homestead.com. To see the systems Bill uses, go to williewins.homestead.com/handicappingstore2.html or williewins.homestead.com/truecb.html. 50 yrs. Experience!

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