Soldier Hollow (GB), a highweight racehorse in Germany and Italy and a perennial leading sire in Germany, where he also has topped the broodmare sires list, has died at the age of 24.
The globetrotting mile-and-a-quarter performer had been unwell for a little while and had returned to his home at Gestut Auenquelle after a spell at a veterinary clinic in Telgte.
Paying tribute on Facebook, Soldier Hollow's owner, Helmut von Finck, said: "Soldier Hollow, the horse of my life. You have done endlessly for me and the whole Thoroughbred. You were my hero, my life and infinitely more . . . Rest in peace, I'm lost for words today but I'll carry you in my heart forever."
Bred by Car Colston Hall Stud, the German Horse of the Year and multiple champion older horse there initially retired to Gestut Rottgen for an opening fee of €6,500 ($7,020) in 2008, standing there until 2011, when he moved to Auenquelle. His fee has been private for the last few seasons but had risen to the heights of €30,000 when made public.
The son of In The Wings has sired 30 individual group winners, including five at group 1, and 64 at black-type level. He has been domestic champion sire on three occasions.
His progeny are headed by Deutsches Derby (G1) and Prix Ganay (G1) hero Pastorius, dual hemisphere group 1 winner Ivanhowe, another Deutsches Derby winner in Weltstar, Grosser Preis von Berlin victor Dschingis Secret (GER), and Preis der Diana heroine Serienholde, the last named also the dam of top-class Japanese performer and new Shadai stallion Schnell Meister.
Just Sunday his Prix Miesque winner Tamfana looked somewhat unlucky not to add Classic glory to her sire's CV when a length fourth in the One Thousand Guineas (G1) at Newmarket.
Soldier Hollow has also had some notable runners in jump racing, particularly over hurdles.
Soldier Hollow, out of Car Colston's winning sprinter Island Race, sold to German International Bloodstock for 75,000gns ($112,872) from Tattersalls in 2001 as a yearling. Sent into training with Peter Schiergen, the diminutive colt owned by Von Finck's Gestut Park Wiedingen won a listed stakes at 2 before landing his first pattern race in the Dr. Busch Memorial at 3.
After three further group 2 or 3 wins the following year, Soldier Hollow won his first top-level contest in the 2004 Premio Roma at the Capannelle. He went on to record back-to-back successes in that race and took the group 1 Bayerisches Zuchtrennen in 2005 and 2007.
He is the only horse in Germany to win stakes races from 2-7 years old and took his connections to Hong Kong and the United States, where he was third in the 2006 Arlington Million (G1T). He had a record of 12-8-2 in 31 starts and earned $1,359,270.
Karl-Dieter Ellerbracke, the co-owner of Gestut Auenquelle, reported the news to the German racing publication GaloppOnline and said Soldier Hollow had been "already very weak" after returning to the stud.
"There are still five or six mares of his currently in foal, so these will be his last offspring," he said.
