Shuttle Stallion Zafonic Dead in Australia

Zafonic died Sept. 7 from injuries suffered in an accident at Arrowfield Stud in the Hunter Valley near Scone in New South Wales, Australia. The 12-year-old son of Gone West had arrived in Australia only three weeks earlier to begin his first Southern Hemisphere season at Arrowfield. He had covered only a handful of mares at his new residence before his death.

Arrowfield, under the chairmanship of John Messara, obtained Zafonic for Southern Hemisphere duty from Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms as a late replacement for End Sweep. The latter died three months earlier while standing in Japan.

Zafonic, who was produced from The Minstrel mare Zaizafon, stood the Northern Hemisphere season at Juddmonte's Banstead Manor in England. He was England's Horse of the Year as a 3-year-old in 1993 and sired 26 stakes winners. His son Ibn Al Haitham won the Saranac (gr. IIIT) at Saratoga five days before his death.