Sunline dies at the age of 13

SUNLINE, one of the greatest racemares in the history of Australasian racing, has been put down after a long battle with the hoof disease laminitis. She was 13.

Trained in partnership in New Zealand by the father-and-son team of Trevor and Stephen McKee, the mighty mare won a remarkable 13 Group 1 events in a 48-race career.


Her victories included back-to-back successes in 1999 and 2000 in the Cox Plate, the continent's most prestigious weight-for-age race in which she also finished second in 2001.

Sunline also won two Doncaster Handicaps (1999, 2002), two Coolmore Classics (2000, 2002) and a Hong Kong Mile (2000), and remains the only horse to be crowned Australia's champion racehorse three times(2000-2002).

She finished third in an unforgettable nip-and-tuck finish to the Dubai Duty Free in 2001, where she was less than a length behind Jim And Tonic.

Sunline was retired at the end of 2002 and her progeny are racing in New Zealand, where she has three horses of racing age, two of them winners, plus a yearling filly.



Greg Childs: "joy and a privilege"
Former jockey Greg Childs, who won 11 Group 1s on Sunline, paid tribute to his old sparring partner.

"It came as a quite a shock to me," he said, speaking in the Melbourne Herald Sun.

"It was a joy and a privilege to ride such a great racehorse," added Childs, who described Sunline asa "freak of nature".

He went on: "She had two countries following her. She travelled to and from New Zealand so often and won on the international stage.

"She lifted my profile tenfold and my bank balance - in fact, she helped the house we live in.

"She was a big influence on my life. It was life-changing. And she's on my computer screen winning the 1999 Cox Plate every time I turn it on."

Sunline, who was put down on Friday, has been troubled by laminitis for some time and reportedly had no blood circulation between her fetlock and hock, which caused the bone to fragment.

The McKee family engageda leading US laminitis expert in a bid to save Sunline but he advised that they had no option but to have her put down as "she had lost all quality of life".

Sunline will be buried at Auckland's Ellerslie racecourse where a memorial will be erected in her honour.