Pneumonia Claims Filly Diamond Omi
by Margaret Ransom
Date Posted: 11/18/2005 5:37:33 PM
Last Updated: 11/20/2005 10:29:54 PM

Diamond Omi defeats Wild Fit in the Oak Leaf Stakes.
Photo: Benoit
Donald and Irene Dizney's Oak Leaf (gr. II) winner Diamond Omi lost her three-week battle with pneumonia and was euthanized on Nov. 17 at Chino Valley Equine Clinic, trainer Bob Baffert said.

"She fought so hard," Baffert said. "We thought she was going to pull through, but her body just gave up."

Diamond Omi won the Oak Leaf Oct. 1, finishing three-quarters of a length in front of grade I winner Wild Fit. The chestnut daughter of Giant's Causeway   shipped to New York where she finished 10th and last in the Alberto VO5 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) at Belmont Park Oct. 29, emerging from the race with a virus that turned into pneumonia.

"She had a walled off abscess in her lung that was close to her heart," Baffert said. "(The veterinarians) couldn't get to that thing. She was trying to get well, but she couldn't. When young horses like her get stressed from shipping and racing, that's when things like this come along.

"I feel awful for the Dizneys. They've been really good to me and they're good friends; we've had some great luck together and I couldn't feel worse for them right now. They put in so much into the game to get a nice horse like her. It's devastating to lose her. She was such a sweet filly, too. She fought too hard to lose."

Diamond Omi raced five times, winning twice with one third, for earnings of $160,740.

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