All Along, Champion on Two Continents, Dies

(from Three Chimneys release)
The French-bred female All Along, champion and Horse of the Year on two continents, died Feb. 23 at the age of 26, Three Chimneys president Dan Rosenberg announced Friday.

The Wildenstein family's champion older horse in France and 1983 Horse of the Year in the U.S. was pensioned two years ago at Three Chimneys.

In a span of 41 days, she won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Fr-I), the Rothmans International (Can-I) at Woodbine, the Turf Classic (gr. IT) at Aqueduct and the Washington, D.C. International (gr. IT) at Laurel. She was the first foreign-based horse to be voted an Eclipse award as Horse of the Year and the first female to be voted the Eclipse as Horse of the Year. She was also the first horse to win the American title without racing on dirt.

"She took us -- my father, my brother and myself -- on a joy ride like no other, culminating in an achievement we scarcely dared to dream about, which was "Horse of the Year" in America," said Alec Wildenstein. "Sad as it is to lose her, I am glad she had such a long and healthy life in return for all the happiness she gave us."

"All Along was euthanized due to the infirmities of old age," said Rosenberg. "You hear that phrase all the time, but I'd like to point out that the Wildensteins authorized us to treat her with thousands of dollars of drugs in the last month in our attempts to try to improve her quality of life. When it became clear that we could do no more, they willingly made the difficult decision for euthanasia."

A remarkably durable racehorse, she ran second in the Japan Cup (Jpn-I) as a 3-year-old in 1982, and as a 5-year-old finished second in the inaugural Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IT) at Hollywood Park, her final race in 1984.

Retired as the leading money-winning mare in the world with earnings of $3,018,420, All Along was voted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1990.

She was buried in the cemetery at the Old Bradley Place division (formerly known as King Ranch) of Three Chimneys, along with Maplejinsky and next to Igual, the dam of King Ranch's homebred Triple Crown winner Assault.

All Along was bred by and raced for the Daniel Wildenstein and was trained by Patrick Biancone. She was by Targowice, out of Agujita and was the dam of group II stakes winner Along All (Prix Greffulhe-G2, 2nd Grand Criterium-G1), stakes winner Aranqueur and three stakes producers.