Bucksplasher, who sired Eclipse Award winner and Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IT) victor Buck's Boy, died the first week of October. The 30-year-old pensioned son of Buckpasser was owned by trainer P. Noel Hickey, who stood him at his Irish Acres Farm near Ocala, Fla.
Hickey paid $90,000 for Bucksplasher at the 1983 Fasig-Tipton New York August horses of racing age sale with the intention of standing him at stud. Thomas Skiffington, who had trained Bucksplasher for part of his career for Ken-Mort Stable, consigned him.
Hickey was more enamored over Buckspasher's pedigree than race record and rightfully so. Bucksplasher had won just five races from 45 starts and earned $126,454. He placed in three stakes, including the Gotham Stakes (gr. II).
Bucksplasher not only was by the great Buckpasser, but out of a Northern Dancer mare. Bucksplasher's winning dam, Victoria Star, was out of Canadian Oaks winner Solometeor.
Bucksplasher didn't take long to prove himself. His first crop, foals of 1985, yielded 13 juvenile winners and six stakes winners, including graded winners Plate Dancer and Blair's Cove.
Many of Bucksplasher's stakes winners were bred by Hickey, including Buck's Boy. Trained by Hickey, Buck's Boy was voted 1998 champion turf male for George Bunn's Quarter B Farm after winning the Breeders' Cup Turf and Turf Classic Invitational Stakes (gr. IT). He also set a course record in that year's Pan American Handicap (gr. IIT). In 2000 at age 7, the gelding won another Pan Am and retired with earnings of $2,750,148.
Bucksplasher, who was bred in Kentucky by W.S. Kilroy, has sired 31 stakes winners, including several other graded winners, and the earners of more than $21 million. He is represented by four 2-year-olds this year.