Maryland Stallion Eastern Echo Dead

Eastern Echo, who was getting ready for his first year at Maryland Stallion Station near Glyndon, Md., after standing at Shamrock Farms near Woodbine, Md., died Tuesday morning of a heart attack.

"He was feeling fine beforehand, and we were looking forward to the new breeding season at the new farm," said a representative of Maryland Stallion Station (Don Litz, president). "He had a great disposition and was very fertile."

Eastern Echo, a homebred grade I winner for the late Paul Mellon, began his stallion career at William S. Farish's Lane's End Farm near Versailles, Ky., for a fee of $10,000 in 1991. Lane's End is a partner in Maryland Stallion Station.

Eastern Echo is represented by 22 stakes winners, including grade I winners Buddy Gil and Swiss Yodeler. Buddy Gil was one of the top 3-year-olds the first part of 2003. He won the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I), San Felipe Stakes (gr. II), and Baldwin Stakes (gr. IIIT). He is stakes-placed twice this year and has career earnings of $804,067.

Swiss Yodeler's glory days came as a 2-year-old. He won the 1996 Hollywood Futurity (gr. I), Hollywood Juvenile Championship Stakes (gr. II), Best Pal Stakes (gr. III), and two other stakes at that age and earned a career total of $761,442 in four years of racing. As a California stallion, Swiss Yodeler has achieved his greatest success as a sire of 2-year-olds.

Eastern Echo's other stakes winners include Western Echo, a graded stakes winner who earned $608,716; Lady of the Future, who bankrolled $507,182; and grade I steeplechase winner Popular Gigalo. Overall, Eastern Echo's runners have earned $18.5 million.

A son of Damascus and one of four graded stakes winners from the grade II-winning Northern Dancer mare Wild Applause, Eastern Echo won all three of his starts, including the 1990 Futurity Stakes (gr. I), and earned $93,960 as a 2-year-old for Mellon's Rokeby Stable. Wild Applause is out of Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Glowing Tribute and is a half-sister to Mellon's homebred Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner Sea Hero.

Eastern Echo, who covered 35 mares in 2004, ranks 12th on this year's Maryland sires list, with earnings of $1.1 million. He was buried at Shamrock.