Multiple grade I winner Dullahan was euthanized yesterday morning (Oct. 20) after undergoing emergency colic surgery during the night, less than a week after being retired from racing.

Retired Oct. 14 due to a tendon injury sustained in the 4-year-old colt’s last start on Aug. 25, definitive plans for his stud career had yet been announced. The colt was at WinStar Farm near Versailles, Ky., on the night of Oct. 19 when the onset of colic occurred.

“At about 1 a.m. this morning the night watchman (at WinStar Farm) noticed that (Dullahan) was sweating profusely and he called in the manager,” Jerry Crawford, managing partner of Donegal Racing, said Oct. 20. “The manager immediately arranged to get him to the clinic.”

Upon arrival at the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, in Lexington, Ky., veterinarians “determined he needed surgery,” Crawford said. “The surgery revealed that his colon had burst and as a result of that there had been a significant contamination internally and there was really nothing they could do to save him