Prominent international sire Red Ransom, who along with Dynaformer and Kris S. helped perpetuate the Roberto/Hail to Reason male line, was euthanized Nov. 14 because of complications from intestinal surgery, according to the Racing Post. The 22-year-old stallion’s death came a week after his son All American won the Emirates Stakes (Aust-I) at Flemington.
Red Ransom stood at Tom Simon’s Vinery Australia. His fee this year was $66,000 (Australian funds).
Bred in Virginia by Paul Mellon and raced by Mellon’s Rokeby Stable, Red Ransom began his racing career in grand fashion, setting a five-furlong track record of :56.80 at Saratoga at 2 in 1989. The son of Roberto then won at six furlongs at Belmont Park in what was his last start of the year.
Red Ransom raced once at 3, finishing second at Gulfstream Park before being retired after fracturing a sesamoid in his left front ankle during a workout that summer. He entered stud for a fee of $7,500 at Dearborn/Vinery, owned by Ben P. Walden Jr. and his wife, Elaine, and located near Midway, Ky. Simon later purchased the farm. Red Ransom’s fee reached $75,000 at Vinery in 2001.
What Red Ransom lacked in the way of race record, he made up for it in the way of pedigree. He was by major winner and sire Roberto, and his dam, Arabia (by Damascus) was a half-sister to Mellon’s homebred grade I winner Winter’s Tale. Red Ransom got out to a quick start as a stallion, topping the first-crop list in 1994. One of his daughters from that foal crop, Bail Out Becky, won the Del Mar Oaks (gr. IT) the following year.
Despite racing only as far as seven furlongs and only on dirt, Red Ransom excelled getting runners capable of winning at lengthy distances and on turf. His daughter Perfect Sting won the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT), and another daughter, Casual Look, took the Vodafone Epsom Oaks (Eng-I). His son Electrocutionist, a champion in Italy and Dubai, captured the Juddmonte International Stakes (Eng-I). Electrocutionist also won the Emirates Airline Dubai World Cup (UAE-I).
Red Ransom began shuttling to Vinery in Australia on a regular basis in the late 1990s. He also stood several seasons at Sheikh Mohammed’s Dalham Hall Stud in England this decade.
Red Ransom has sired 98 stakes winners and the earners of $80 million.
