Slip Anchor, the runaway winner of the 1985 Ever Ready Epsom Derby (Eng-I) under American jockey Steve Cauthen, has died at the age of 29, according to the Racing Post.
A homebred for Lord Howard de Walden, Slip Anchor was a seven length Derby winner and a third-generation winner of the classic. His sire, Shirley Heights, won the 1978 running and grandsire Mill Reef captured the 1971 renewel. All three were English champion 3-year-olds.
Cauthen made history with his classic triumph aboard Slip Anchor, becoming the first jockey to win the Epsom Derby and the Kentucky Derby (gr. I). Cauthen had captured the 1978 Run for the Roses on Affirmed. He remains the sole jockey to have won both stakes.
Bred in Great Britain, Slip Anchor won two other stakes and placed in four stakes including the Dubai Champion Stakes (Eng-I).
Slip Anchor sired 32 stakes winners including 1992 Cartier Horse of the Year User Friendly, German and Italian champion Morshdi, and L’Hermine, winner of the 1994 Louisville Handicap at Churchill Downs and third that year in the Sword Dancer Invitational Handicap (gr. IT) at Saratoga.
