Archers Bay Euthanized Following Colic Complications

Archers Bay, who won Canada's most prestigious race, the Queen's Plate, was euthanized Oct. 3 after complications arose following colic surgery.

The 7-year-old horse, by Silver Deputy out of the Val de l'Orne mare Adorned, won the Queen's Plate in 1998 and was named Canada's champion 3-year-old that year.

Archers Bay was bred in Canada by Winfields Farm and purchased by Eugene and Laura Melnyk and Bill and Iris Bristow for $120,000 at the 1996 Keeneland September yearling sale. He then returned to Windfields to stand at stud, having covered 176 mares there during the past three breeding seasons combined. His first yearlings sold this year. Archers Bay stood this year for $7,500 (Canadian funds).

Besides the Queen's Plate, Archers Bay won the Prince of Wales S. and ran second in the Gulfstream Park Handicap (gr. I) to Behrens. He earned $666,200. He was trained by Todd Pletcher.

"He was more than a stallion to us," Noreen Taylor of Windfields Farm said. "Archers Bay represented eight generations of Windfields' committment to racing and breeding, eight generations of pride that cannot be easily replaced."