‘95 Arkansas Derby winner Dazzling Falls dies at age 28

Dazzling Falls won no Triple Crown races after leaving Oaklawn Park but his place in history is secure.

At age 28, the 1995 Arkansas Derby winner (Grade 2) died Monday at rancher Roger Pelster’s farm in Mead, Neb. The only Nebraska- bred horse to run in the Kentucky Derby remains the all- time state- bred money winner, earning more than $900,000 with a 20-9-4-3 record.

Pelster said the horse’s decline happened suddenly. “He’d make a lot of noise in the mornings because he wanted to be fed,” Pelster told Omaha World-Herald reporter Mike Patterson. “When I didn’t hear anything, I knew something was wrong.”

“He was just doing great. It’s weird, but when a horse is that old it can happen at any time.”

Dazzling Falls’ death follows that recently of 2011 Arkansas Derby winner Archarcharch in south Korea, where he had been transferred from central Kentucky for stud duty. He was owned by Bob and Val Yagos of Jacksonville and trained by Jinks Fires.

Owned by Don and Barbara Kroeger of Valley, Neb., and trained by Omaha native Chuck Turco, Dazzling Falls punched his ticket for Churchill Downs with victories in the $300,000 Remington Park Derby and the $ 500,000 Arkansas Derby. At Oaklawn, he gave jockey Garrett Gomez his second-straight Arkansas Derby winner, a feat not bettered until Jon Court won in

2010 and 2011. Dazzling Falls earned the rail post in the Kentucky Derby, in recent years a kiss of death, and finished 13th behind winner Thunder Gulch. “We needed a great trip to win,” Turco said afterward. “And we didn’t get that trip.”

Dazzling Falls went on to the Ohio Derby but required a rider change when Gomez went AWOL the week of the race. With Corey Nakatani aboard, Dazzling Falls finished second at Thistledown to Petionville, ridden by Pat Day and trained by former Wayne Lukas aide Randy Bradshaw. Later in his

3-year-old season, Dazzling Falls placed fifth behind Mecke in the then- Grade 1 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs.

At stud, his best son was Diamond Joe, a Turco-trained gelding who won 24 races and more than $ 507,000. Dazzling Falls alternated between Oklahoma and Iowa before moving on to Pelster’s 47-acre ranch.

“I hope he’ll be remembered as one of the greats of Nebraska racing,” Turco said this week. “He was quite a horse.”