Fans favourite horse Arcadian Sunrise dies after third-place Royal Ascot finish

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Popular racehorse Arcadian Sunrise has tragically been put down just days after securing a third-place finish at Royal Ascot.

The eight-year-old fan favourite male had been a hugely consistent performer, but died just two days after finishing third in last Tuesday’s Ascot Stakes. Sean Queally, son of husband-and-wife owners John and Miriam, confirmed the tragic news.

He revealed Arcadian Sunrise had been suffering from a short illness and returned from the flat handicap horse race unwell, before passing on Thursday. He had landed a £12,090 prize for finishing just a length-and-a-half behind winner Coltrane in the Class 2 2m4f.

A devastated Sean told the Racing Post: "It's terrible. We didn't get to see how good he was and he was only starting to get going.

"He ran some race at Ascot and could have even been closer. He barely ever finished out of the frame. He was always in the prize-money.

"That day at York [when he won the 2021 Sky Bet Handicap], he was so impressive. He was all guns blazing for the [upcoming] Galway Hurdle."

Arcadian Sunrise won connections a staggering total of £145,555 from his 18 races. He had four victories over hurdles and two wins from eight races on the flat.

He had been in scintillating form this year, having finished fourth to Cleveland in the Chester Cup. And it is unknown what his exact cause of death was as connections await an autopsy report.

Sean added: "He travelled home well, but once we put him in the stable he started rolling and sweating and just wasn't himself. We had to take him out and walk him around for about four hours. We thought it was colic but it wasn't that in the end.

"The vet didn't know himself, he thought it might have been travel sickness, but there was a problem with his bladder as he couldn't urinate, and we had to take him to Fethard that evening.

"He started lying down and we couldn't get him up so we had to put him in the box. They did a few tests on his heart and said he should be OK in the morning.

"But we got a call the next morning saying he had deteriorated overnight, followed by another call a short while later asking for permission to put him down."

• Royal Ascot
• Horse racing

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