by Jeff Apel
Grade 2 winner Seeking Daylight, a Maryland-based sire who stood four South American breeding seasons in Argentina, was euthanized on February 1 because of complications following colic surgery. He was 11.
The Seeking the Gold horse out of stakes winner Play all Day, by Steady Growth, returned to Maryland before Christmas, and underwent colic surgery in late January. Seeking Daylight was slated to stand the 2009 North American breeding season for $3,500 at Shamrock Farms in Woodbine, Maryland, as part of a partnership between Edward Evans, the horse’s owner and breeder, and the Maryland Stallion Station in Glyndon, Maryland.
“He was an eyeful. You would not walk by him,” Maryland Stallion Station President Don Litz said. “He had a very intelligent look about his eye. He had great angles—a tremendous hip, a great shoulder with a really good bone for a Thoroughbred.”
A half brother to Grade 1 winner Hedonist and stakes winner and sire Zaha, Seeking Daylight is the sire of 158 foals in four crops, including 104 foals of racing age. His 20 winners from 32 starters had compiled $814,680 in purse earnings through Monday.
Seeking Daylight’s top progeny include stakes winner Dance Hall Days and stakes-placed winner Broad But Nice.
Seeking Daylight entered stud in 2004 at Shamrock Farms, then spent the next four years standing at the Maryland Stallion Station.
Litz said Seeking Daylight’s progeny were “good sized, good boned, [and] very correct.”
“He’s very well thought of in Argentina,” Litz said. “They think he was going to be one of the top sires in Argentina.”
Seeking Daylight won the 2002 Brooklyn Handicap (G2) at Belmont Park in his final race during a two-year racing career that included $244,710 in purse earnings and four wins in seven starts. Trained by Mark Hennig, Seeking Daylight is from the family of 1990 Canadian Horse of the Year Izvestia and Grade 3 winner Key Spirit.
“Good stallions are always hard to find. But you’re continually beating the bush for these kind of stallions,” Litz said. “He was a Grade 2 winner. With his kind of conformation and his female family, they are difficult to replace.”
Jeff Apel is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY assistant editor