Highest Honor, a major winner and a leading sire twice in France, died June 25 of a heart attack at age 26. He stood at Alec Head’s Haras du Quesnay in France before being pensioned last year.
Bred in France by Petra Bloodstock, Highest Honor was France’s 1987 champion 4-year-old miler for Issam Fares after winning the Prix d’Ispahan (Fr-I) and the Prix Edmond Blanc (Fr-III). He also was a stakes winner at 3 and ran second in the Dubai Poule d’Essai des Poulains (Fr-I, the French Two Thousand Guineas).
Highest Honor concluded his racing career in the United States, finishing unplaced in the 1987 Breeders’ Cup Mile (gr. IT), won by French filly Miesque. He finished in the top three in 11 of 14 races and earned $288,100.
Highest Honor (Kenmare--High River, by Riverman) topped the French sires list in 1995 and 2000. His 71 stakes winners include such European champions as Double Honour, Sagacity, and Marotta. Two of his French stakes winners, Admise and Gothland, were graded stakes winners in California. Admise won the 1996 Oak Tree Turf Championship Stakes (gr. IT), and Gothland captured a pair of grade II grass stakes in the Golden State in 1994.