Multiple grade II winner Kensei, a half brother to champion Lookin At Lucky , was euthanized Aug. 23 after breaking down during a gallop over the Belmont Park training track.
Owned by Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Stables and trained by Steve Asmussen, the Kentucky-bred 5-year-old son of Mr. Greeley out of the Belong to Me mare Private Feeling suffered a broken right front cannon bone.
Bred in Kentucky by Gulf Coast Farms, Kensei raced for Gulf Coast and Stonestreet until partway through this year.
Kensei earned $751,364 during his career. Starting 18 times he won five races and placed in six others.
Kensei attracted initial attention when he won at Saratoga at 2 in his debut. At 3 he captured the Dwyer Stakes (gr. II) and the Jim Dandy Stakes (gr. II) in consecutive starts and placed in the Jerome Handicap (gr. II), the Woody Stephens Stakes (gr. II), and the Derby Trial Stakes (gr. III). This year he won the Salvator Mile Stakes (gr. III) and ran second in two stakes including the Majestic Light Stakes at Monmouth Park July 31 in his last start.
Lookin At Lucky was champion male at 2 and 3. He scored grade I wins in the 2010 Preakness Stakes and the IZOD Haskell Invitational Stakes the year of his 3-year-old championship.
