Champion Lord Avie, Sire of 74 Stakes Winners, Pensioned

Lord Avie, champion 2-year-old male of 1980 for SKS Stable and sire of 74 stakes winners, has been pensioned at William S. Farish's Lane's End Farm near Versailles, Ky., because of advanced age and a decline in fertility. The 24-year-old son of Lord Gaylord held court at Lane's End since 1989 following his relocation from Leslie Combs II's Spendthrift Farm near Lexington.

Lord Avie, who was bred by Dick Johnson's Viking Farms, entered stud at Spendthrift with a $10-million syndication price tag attached to his name. He had been syndicated by Spendthrift in January of his 3-year-old season on the basis of 40 shares, at a price of $250,000 per share. The SKS owners--David Simon, Edithe and Michael Kay, Michael Streit, Mortimer Leiwant, and Rita Sosower--sold 20 shares and retained the rest. Escalation clauses were attached that would raise the price of the 20 outside shares if Lord Avie won specified races, including the Triple Crown events, and earned a championship. That part of the contract never came into play.

Trained by Daniel Perlsweig, Lord Avie won the Florida Derby (gr. I) and Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream the winter of his 3-year-old season in 1981, but missed the spring classics because of a suspensory problem. He returned to the races that summer and ran second in the Haskell Invitational Handicap (gr. I) and third in the Travers Stakes (gr. I) behind winner Willow Hour and subsequent champion 3-year-old male Pleasant Colony. He was retired soon after the Travers because of a filling in the same area where he had injured his suspensory.

Lord Avie (Lord Gaylord--Avie, by Gallant Man) entered stud in 1982 with eight wins from 16 starts and earnings of $705,977. His major wins as a 2-year-old had come in the Champagne (gr. I) and Young America (gr. I) Stakes.

Lord Avie twice was represented by nine stakes winners from a single crop and two additional crops each yielded seven added-money winners. His runners proved adept on both dirt and turf, with the latter group accounting for more than $10 million from his overall earnings of $35 million. He is represented by 23 graded or group winners, including French champion Ode and two-time grade I-winning filly Magical Maiden, plus Canadian grade I winner Fly for Avie and grade II winner Avies Copy, who ran third in the 1987 Kentucky Derby (gr. I).