Arrogate, twice crowned the world’s best racehorse, dies aged 7 after mystery illness

Arrogate, whose wins in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup, 2017 Pegasus World Cup and 2017 Dubai World Cup made him the biggest prizemoney winner in North American racing history, has had to be put down at stud after failing to recover from a mystery illness.

A post mortem will be carried out on the horse trained by Bob Baffert for owner Khaled Abdullah.

Arrogate’s death was announced by Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farm Stud on Tuesday.

Arrogate has had to be put down at stud after failing to recover from a mystery illness

In a statement, it was said that Arrogate had had a very successful breeding season this year until last week when his breeding was suspended due to an initial suspected sore neck.

Later in the week, he fell to the ground in his stall and efforts to get him back up proved unsuccessful.

Tirelessly efforts, including spinal tap evaluation, x-ray, ultrasound, CT Scan and many blood tests, failed to improve Arrogate’s condition.

Douglas Erskine Crum, CEO Juddmonte Group, said: ‘This is very hard on everyone at Juddmonte. Arrogate has bred three crops at stud, has his first yearlings to present to the sales this year and his physical and personality traits are passing very strongly to his offspring.’

Garrett O’Rourke, General Manager Juddmonte USA added: ‘We will never forget the ride Arrogate took us on.

‘Those four amazing races established him as one of the great racehorses of our time, breaking two track records, taking down champion California Chrome in a battle for the ages and then running by Gun Runner in another worldly performance in Dubai.

‘We hope that the heartbreak of losing him so young can be soothed by proudly watching the achievement of his runners.’