Committed, a champion sprinter in England and France and granddam of Eclipse Award winner English Channel , was euthanized May 3 at owner Gerald Ford’s Diamond A Ranch near Versailles, Ky. The 29-year-old mare was by Hagley out of the Boldnesian mare Minstinguette.
“We found her lying down,” said farm manager Ted Carr. “She had experienced feebleness in her hind end for years.”
Committed specialized in sprinting and often competed against males in important events. She won the William Hill Sprint Championship (Eng-I) and twice captured the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp (Fr-I).
Bred in Virginia by James and Alice Mills’ Hickory Tree Farm, Committed was bought for $52,000 by the English branch of the British Bloodstock Agency at the 1981 Keeneland September yearling sale. She was a champion for Robert Sangster at 4 and a champion for Allen Paulson at 5.
Following her European campaign, Committed was returned to North America in the fall of 1985. She ran unplaced in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint (gr. I) and then won the Matching Handicap at Hollywood Park. She was retired to Paulson’s Brookside Farms near Versailles after an unplaced start in 1986 with a record of 17 wins from 30 starts and earnings of $333,501. In Ireland, where she had begun her career, she won a dozen of 18 starts.
Paulson bred Committed to such distance stallions as Nijinsky II, Lyphard, and Theatrical (whom he owned and stood at Brookside), in order to inject some stamina into her foals. From such matings, Committed produced grade I winner Pharma, grade II winner and millionaire Hap, Irish stakes winner Committed Dancer, and Belva, whose son English Channel was voted 2007 champion grass male after winning the John Deere Breeders’ Cup Turf (gr. IT).
Upon Paulson’s death in the summer of 2000, Ford bought Committed for $300,000 from The Allen E. Paulson Living Trust at that year’s Keeneland November breeding stock sale. Consigned by Narvick International, agent, Committed was carrying Committed Actress.
Ford, whose Diamond A Farms is located on a parcel of the former Brookside, still owns Committed Actress. She produced a Smart Strike filly this year and is booked to Indian Charlie.
For her career, Committed produced 10 named foals, seven of which were winners. She is buried at Diamond A.
