NY-bred Effinex dies suddenly
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Grade 1 winner Effinex died suddenly in his stall Wednesday at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds according to a release that quoted Joe McMahon.
”Multiple Graded Stakes winner Effinex died very suddenly Wednesday evening in his stall from natural causes,” Joe McMahon said in the release. “This is a huge personal loss to his ownerbreeder Dr. Russell Cohen. He truly loved his horse.”
The release also said an autopsy performed by Rood and Riddle Veterinary Associates revealed that the cause of death for the 6-year-old was an acute rupture of the pulmonary artery.
“The passing of EFFINEX is also a terrible loss to the New York Thoroughbred breeding community, as well as to all of us at McMahon of Saratoga,” McMahon said in the release.
Effinex was set to stand for $10,000 at McMahon of Saratoga for the 2018 breeding season after he stood his debut season at Questroyal North in Stillwater, according to multiple reports.
The successful New York state-bred racked up nine wins in 28 career starts and finished in the money 16 times for career earnings of $3,312,950. He was trained by Jimmy Jerkens.
After going unraced as a 2-year-old, Effinex broke his maiden at second asking in March of his 3-year-old campaign in 2014 at Aqueduct. He followed it up with another win at the Big A before making his stakes debut in the Wood Memorial, where he finished eighth.
Effinex won his first stakes race at Belmont Park in October 2014 when he captured the Empire Classic Handicap against other state-breds. He went on to win the Grade 3 Excelsior Stakes and Suburban Handicap as a 4-year-old at Belmont in 2015. The Mineshaft horse, out of What a Pear (by E Dubai), took fourth at the Woodward in his Saratoga debut later that year.
Effinex was runner-up behind American Pharoah in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Classic in November of 2015 then retained his good form to win his first Grade 1 race — the Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs — later that month.
He went on to win the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap and repeat as the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap as a 5-year-old before a fourth place finish in the 2016 Whitney in his final Saratoga start.
Effinex was runner up in the 2016 Jockey Club Gold Cup then failed to hit the board in the Classic and Clark Handicap in what turned out to be the final races of his career.