Timber Country

Timber Country (foaled 1992 in Kentucky, died February 24, 2016)^[1] was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who was the first horse to ever win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile then go on to win one of the U.S. Triple Crown races for three-year-olds.

Out of the mare Fall Aspen, his sire was Woodman, a Champion 2-year-old colt in Ireland who was a son of the very influential Champion sire Mr. Prospector. Woodman also sired Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Hansel, as well as the 1999 Canadian Champion 3-Year-Old Colt and Queen's Plate winner, Woodcarver. Timber Country is closely related to the Dubai World Cup winner, Dubai Millennium, who was sired by a son of Mr. Prospector out of a daughter of Fall Aspen.

Racing career

1994: two-year-old season

Bought as a yearling for $500,000 by a partnership between Overbrook Farm, Gainesway Stable, Robert & Beverly Lewis, Timber Country was trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee D. Wayne Lukas. Racing at age two in California, the colt won four of his seven starts. At Del Mar Racetrack, he won the Balboa Stakes and was third in the Del Mar Futurity. Sent East, Timber Country won the Grade I Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. His victory made him the betting favorite for the most important race of the year for his age group, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. In that race, Timber Country came from well back to win going away. His 1994 performances earned him U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt honors.

1995: three-year-old season

In the spring of 1995 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, three-year-old Timber Country ran third in the San Rafael Stakes and second in the San Felipe Stakes. Going into the Kentucky Derby the colt was winless in all three of his 1995 starts and was up against a field that included strong competition such as Tejano Run, who had finished third to Timber Country in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile; Thunder Gulch, who was also trained by D. Wayne Lukas and who had won that spring's Fountain of Youth Stakes and Florida Derby; Talkin Man, the Canadian Two-Year-Old Champion coming off an impressive win in the Wood Memorial Stakes; plus the future Hall of Fame filly Serena's Song, who was owned by Robert and Beverly Lewis, one of Timber Country's owners.

Drawing the difficult post position seventeen in the Kentucky Derby's nineteen-horse field, Timber Country was among the trailers for most of the race. A horse who liked to come from behind, entering the homestretch he was still only in tenth place and, bunched between a congestion of challengers, lost time when he had to swing to the outside to find some running room. In the stretch drive. jockey Pat Day and Timber County made a move to get between horses and came on strongly enough to finish third behind runner-up Tejano Run and winner Thunder Gulch.

In the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series, Timber Country was the parimutuel betting favorite. The colt won the race after he passed five horses through the turn and homestretch and won by half a length over runner-up Oliver's Twist and third-place finisher Thunder Gulch. Timber Country's win marked the first time since the establishment of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 1984 that a winner of that race went on to win one of the American Classic races.

Made the heavy favorite to win the third and final leg of the Triple Crown, Timber Country had to be withdrawn from the Belmont Stakes on the day before the race as a result of a high fever from a virus that saw his temperature nearing 103 degrees. He never raced again.

Stud record

Retired to stud duty, Timber Country was first sent to a breeding operation in Japan. While there, he was also shuttled to Australia, where he notably sired Eremein, a five-time Group One winner with career earnings in excess of A$4 million. In 2001, Timber Country stood in Dubai, then was returned to Japan, where he remained until being sent to Australia again to stand at Lee Fleming's Eliza Park Stud in Romsey, Victoria.

Pedigree

References

• Timber Country's pedigree and partial racing stats
• Video at YouTube of Timber Country's win in the 1995 Preakness Stakes
• Timber Country's offspring at the Triple Crown database by Kathleen Irwin and Joy Reeves