Dam London Wall Foaled 1995 Colour Chestnut Parents Fort Wood Sex Stallion | Damsire Col Pickering Country South Africa Species Equus caballus Earnings 474,036 USD Grandsire Sadler's Wells | |
Owner Harry & Bridget Oppenheimer Breeder Harry Frederick Oppenheimer | ||
Horse Chestnut (foaled 19 August 1995) is a champion thoroughbred racehorse bred in South Africa by Harry F. Oppenheimer at his Mauritzfontein Stud in Kimberley. His sire is Fort Wood who, as of 2007, has sired ten Group One winners, including Dynasty, the 2003 South African Horse of the Year. Fort Wood is a son of the British champion sire, Sadler's Wells.
Horse Chestnut was raced by Oppenheimer and his wife, Bridget. The colt won the South African Triple Crown and was named both the Equus Award for Horse of the Year and Champion 3-year-old Colt at three. He ran 10 races, winning 9 and placing 3rd once. Some notable wins include the Group One J&B Metropolitan Stakes over 2000m by 8ΒΌ lengths, the Group I South African Derby over 2450m by 10 lengths, and the Group I South African Classic over 1800m by 4 lengths.
Sent to race in the United States, he won the Grade III Broward Handicap at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida, over 1700m by five and a half lengths. During his preparation for the Grade I Donn Handicap, Horse Chestnut fractured a piece of his splint bone on his near foreleg, resulting in his early retirement from racing. The Oppenheimers subsequently sold the majority of shares in Horse Chestnut to Seth Hancock's Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, where he went to stud.
Some of Horse Chestnut's most notable offspring include Lucifer's Stone, Spanish Chestnut, Smart Enough, and Fete.
Horse Chestnut died on 19 February 2015 in his stall at Drakenstein Stud in South Africa. Autopsy revealed that heart failure was the cause of his death.