by Ed DeRosa

Cherokee Run, leading freshman sire of 1999 and one of the few remaining sons of Runaway Groom at stud, has been pensioned for the 2010 season due to declining fertility and physical ailments.

The 19-year-old champion sprinter of 1994 has sired 44 stakes winners, including champions War Pass and Chilukki. The former stands at William S. Farish’s Lane’s End Farm, and other graded stakes winners by Cherokee Run now at stud include During, Kafwain, Sir Cherokee, Yonaguska, and Zanjero.

Cherokee Run began his stallion career in 1996 at Jonabell Farm, which is now Darley following its acquisition by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. He stood his 14th season in 2009 for an advertised fee of $25,000 after standing the previous five years for $40,000. Cherokee Run covered 45 mares this year.

Cherokee Run’s first crop included the now-deceased Chilukki, who won six of seven starts in her two-year-old season and went on to win graded stakes at two and three. That first crop also included the stakes winners Feathers and Dash for Daylight, and the sire’s fee increased to $20,000 in 2000.

Cherokee Run won 12 of 28 starts lifetime, including the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) in his championship season, and earned $1,531,818. George Ornett bred him in Florida out of the Silver Saber mare Cherokee Dame.

Ed DeRosa is news editor of Thoroughbred Times