Speightstown, Eclipse Award-winning champion sprinter of 2004 and one of North America’s most prolific and most versatile sires, was euthanized Friday due to foot issues from old age, the WinStar Farm announced.

Speightstown, a Taylor Made-WinStar stallion, was 25 years old.
An outstanding physical specimen who was handsome, compact, and muscular, Speightstown was a $2 million yearling sold out of the Taylor Made sales-agency consignment at the 1999 Keeneland July sale of selected yearlings.

Equipped with brilliant speed and a heart to match, Speightstown went on to be crowned a champion on the racetrack. He won 10 of 16 starts, placed in four others and amassed earnings of $1,258,256 for owners Eugene and Laura Melnyk and trainer Todd Pletcher.

Speightstown’s signature win came in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Lone Star Park in 2004, where he polished off a competitive field at age 6, getting six furlongs in a blazing 1:08.11 under John Velázquez
Speightstown’s accomplished racing career was a prelude to establishing an enduring legacy as an influential stallion at WinStar. A sire of sires, Speightstown was a regular fixture among the ranks of leading stallions. In 2013, Speightstown was the top sire in North America by number of stakes wins with 36, higher than Kitten’s Joy, War Front, Harlan’s Holiday and Giant’s Causeway.

From 16 crops of racing age, Speightstown sired 26 Grade and Group 1 winners on every surface, and from six furlongs to 1 1/4 miles, all over the world. He is represented by 228 black-type horses, 138 black-type winners, 65 graded-stakes winners, and he has more than $154 million in progeny earnings.