Academy Award, one of Secretariat's last surviving sons, dies at Old Friends

Barely seven months after his heralded arrival at Old Friends, the 24-year-old stallion, Academy Award, died peacefully at the Georgetown, Kentucky thoroughbred sanctuary on August 24th, succumbing to laminitis and other infirmities. He was one of the last surviving sons of the great Secretariat.

Academy Award raced with distinction, notching five victories, including the Grade II Early Times Manhattan Handicap on the Belmont turf. He retired with earnings of $226,943.

Affectionately nicknamed, "Oscar," by a member of the Old Friends staff, the diminutive chestnut's retirement had been made possible through the efforts of actress Angie Dickinson and Boston-based TV producer Barbara Bowen, with additional support from Secretariat's owner, Penny Chenery, through the Secretariat Foundation. Prior to his arrival at Old Friends on January 29th of this year, Academy Award had been on the stallion roster at Win Row Farm in Lebanon, Ohio.

Though he had barely settled into his cushy life as a pampered retiree, Academy Award touched the hearts of those who cared for him, and today, they deeply mourn his loss. Barbara Bowen had first met Academy Award in 1994, when she visited Claiborne Farm, where he was then standing at stud. She'd lost track of him in the intervening years, but in the spring of 2009, she happened upon an ad in the Thoroughbred Times, in which the then 23-year-old stallion was being offered for sale for $6000. . .

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