Alumni Hall, a multiple graded stakes winner for William S. Farish and partners, was euthanized in June because of complications associated with heart failure. The 12-year-old son of A.P. Indy out of the stakes-winning Alydar mare Private Status stood the last four years at Norse Ridge Farm near King City, Ontario, Canada.
“He was quite an individual, striking to look at, and had a first-class pedigree,” said Norse Ridge manager Jason LaMarche-Hunderup about the full brother to grade I winner Secret Status.
A homebred for Farish, James Elkins, and W. Temple Webber Jr,. Alumni Hall didn’t race until he was a 5-year-old in 2004. Trained by Neil Howard, he got off to a quick start, winning four of his first five starts, including the Black Tie Affair Handicap.
Alumni Hall experienced his best season at 6. He won the 2005 Ben Ali Stakes (gr. III), the Fayette Stakes (gr. III), and the Maxxam Gold Cup Handicap and ran second in the Meadowland Breeders’ Cup Stakes (gr. II). At 7 he placed in four graded stakes, including the Ben Ali.
Retired to stud at Farish’s Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Ky., for the 2007 breeding season, Alumni Hall failed to get a mare in foal and was returned to training.
Alumni Hall was sent to trainer Jonathan Sheppard to be prepared for a jumping career. He competed once in a flat race on turf, but not over jumps.
“He wasn’t really sound and athletic enough,” Sheppard said. “We spent quite a bit of time with him because we knew he was a good horse. He found it awkward, and I think that was because he had some hind end issues.
“I ran him in a flat race on turf to see how he’d handle it but he didn’t run very well and didn’t show much interest. I talked it over with Mr. Farish and told him the horse wasn’t going to do well because he wasn’t comfortable. He agreed, and we sent him home.”
Alumni Hall, who won or placed in 17 of 29 races and earned $747,756, stood at Norse Ridge starting in 2008. He is represented by 20 named 2-year-olds from that crop. Neither of his two starters has won.