Grade 1 Winner Cuvee Dies In Turkey At Age 22

Cuvee, a Grade 1 winner and veteran sire, has died due to complications related to chronic heart failure, the Turkish publication Yaris Dergisi reports.

The 22-year-old son of Carson City had been standing at Karacabey Pension Stud in Turkey since 2010, after standing at Spendthrift Farm and Gainesway during his time in the U.S.

Cuvee has sired 245 winners from 16 crops of racing age, with combined progeny earnings of more than $15.7 million.

His U.S.-sired runners are led by Noble's Promise, a Grade 1 winner who finished fifth in the 2010 Kentucky Derby. Cuvee's Turkish-born runners include Spencer, who was named Turkey's champion miler of 2021.

As a broodmare sire, Cuvee's top runners include Grade 2 winner Chocolate Pop, Grade 3 winner Tejano Twist, and Grade 1-placed Hot Affair.

Racing as a homebred for Winchell Thoroughbreds and co-owned by Spendthrift Farm, Cuvee won four of nine starts during his on-track career, and he earned $402,044.

Cuvee won his first two starts as a 2-year-old at Churchill Downs with trainer Steve Asmussen, taking a maiden special weight in his debut, then winning the G3 Kentucky Breeders' Cup Stakes. After finishing third in the G3 Bashford Manor Stakes at the same track, Cuvee got back on the winning path in New York, taking the G2 Saratoga Special Stakes and the G1 Futurity Stakes. He finished his season running 12th in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita Park.

He returned at three to register runner-up efforts in the listed Matt Winn Stakes and the G3 Kentucky Cup Sprint Stakes before finishing out of the money in the 2004 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Lone Star Park in what would be his final start.

Cuvee retired to Spendthrift Farm for the 2005 breeding season, and he was relocated to Gainesway the following year.

In addition to his Thoroughbred runners, Cuvee sired one Quarter Horse appendix runner, who ended up becoming one of his most successful offspring on the track.

Fovee, a homebred for Robert Gentry, won five of 15 starts, including the G1 Mildred N. Vessels Memorial Handicap and the G3 Los Alamitos Distaff Challenge, to go along with three additional graded stakes placings. She retired with earnings of $380,385.