Grade 1 winner The Big Beast, who was rebuilding his stallion career in Arkansas on the laurels of his grade 1-winning son Reef Runner, was euthanized July 28 because of complications from an infected hind leg that became septic. The son of Yes It's True was 15.
The Big Beast stood at McDowell Farm since 2023, when he was relocated from Ocala Stud. Farm owner Bill McDowell said the stallion had an issue with his hind leg on and off for a couple of years, but it had never interfered with his job covering mares.
"The rest of his body was so healthy and then that leg got so bad," McDowell said. "It finally got to the rest of his body."
The Big Beast raced for Alex and JoAnn Lieblong, who bought him for $150,000 at the 2013 Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale out of the Ends Well consignment. Alex Lieblong actually first spied The Big Beast as a yearling the previous year during the Keeneland September Yearling Sale and was struck by his size and good looks.
"The Big Beast got my attention from a couple hundred yards away at Keeneland on my way to see another horse," said Lieblong, who had raced the colt's half brother named Big Lute, who got injured in the 2013 Southwest Stakes (G3). "I thought, 'Wow' because he was nice. The next year at the Ocala sale, he was really a specimen, but he was almost too big to really work hard."
Lieblong bought him and sent The Big Beast to trainer Steve Hobby, who took the time to let the colt mature, concerned that he would hurt himself because of his speed and his size. The Big Beast made his racing debut during March of his 3-year-old year. He became a winner in his third start and, two races later, captured the King's Bishop Stakes (G1) by a neck over Fast Anna.
At 4, he lost by a head bob in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1) after jockey John Velazquez lost his crop three-sixteenths from the wire. Velazquez took off his goggles and used them to keep The Big Beast focused and ended up getting a fine from the stewards, according to Lieblong. In his next start, The Big Beast would be second again in the Forego Stakes (G1) to Private Zone, who was trained by Jorge Navarro.
The Big Beast retired with a 4-3-1 record from nine starts and earned $676,300.
Ocala Stud launched his stud career in 2016 and he bred 103 mares in his first book. During his freshman year in 2019, he ranked in the top 20 by progeny earnings and co-ranked 11th by number of winners with 16 alongside Liam's Map and Summer Front. The Big Beast did not get a stakes winner his freshman year, but his daughter Inspiressa ran second in the Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1).
The Big Beast bred 113 mares in 2019, but when a graded stakes winner did not emerge among his runners, his book size had tumbled to nine in 2022 and he was relocated to Arkansas.
The first year The Big Beast stood at McDowell Farm was the racing debut of the Lieblongs' homebred Reef Runner. The gelding out of the winning Blame daughter Paradise Bay became a stakes winner at 3 and a graded stakes winner at 4 in the 2025 Eddie D. Stakes (G2T) at Santa Anita Park. With trainer David Fawkes, Reef Runner has only gotten better with age. Fawkes got him primed for the 2026 season with a win in the Janus Stakes in late December at Gulfstream Park and then shipped him overseas where he captured the 1351 Turf Sprint (G2T) at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Saudi Arabia.
Reef Runner ran a good fourth in the Al Quoz Sprint (G1T) at Meydan Racecourse and then found redemption back in the States by winning the June 6 Jaipur Stakes (G1T). Reef Runner sustained a soft tissue injury earlier this month and is going through rehabilitation for a return to racing that could mirror this year's schedule, according to Fawkes.
McDowell said watching the success of Reef Runner had been exciting. In 2025, The Big Beast bred 46 mares—more than any other stallion in Arkansas.
"It is tough to lose him," he said of the stallion. "We were expecting better years ahead. He would have been a useful horse for several years. And people don't realize what Alex has done by standing the stallion and then getting a homebred son who is a grade 1 winner. That is incredible."
Lieblong said he has been going back and watching replays of The Big Beast's stakes performances.
"We have been very fortunate," he said. "He left us with a lot of good memories and a pretty good going-away present."
