Military Hawk, one of the most durable and classy thoroughbreds in Washington history has died from colic, trainer Sharon Ross said.
Winner of 12 stakes and $688,128 in an exceptional 86-race career, the 24-year-old gelding passed away last week at Sharon and Larry Ross’ farm in Auburn. Military Hawk was “fighting to the end,” Ross said.
A 1987 foal owned and bred by George and Norma Sedlock’s G & N Thoroughbreds, Military Hawk ranks second on the state’s all-times earnings list, and might be the only horse ever to win races at Longacres, Playfair, Yakima Meadows and Emerald Downs. The gelding’s final race was Aug. 17, 1997 at Emerald Downs, a head victory in a $40,000 claiming race with Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens aboard.
Stevens also was up when Military Hawk won the 1992 Washington Championship, the final stakes race in Longacres History, en route to honors as the state’s Top Handicap Horse that year.
By Colonel Stevens-S.S. Hawk, Military Hawk debuted July 26, 1989 at Longacres, finishing second in a $16,000 maiden-claiming race for 2-year-olds. Military Hawk won stakes at Playfair and Yakima Meadows that fall, and would continue racing through his 10-year-old season in 1997. At Longacres, he finished second in the 1990 Longacres Derby and in 1991 won both the Renton Handicap and Seattle Handicap.
Military Hawk also won stakes in California at Bay Meadows, Pleasanton, Solano and Santa Rosa, and in Canada at Exhibition Park. Military Hawk spent his retirement at the nearby Ross farm with former runners like Passing Game, Branden’s Brandy, Marketal and 1985 Longacres Mile winner Chum Salmon, who died in 2005 at age 25.
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