BY BROCK SHERIDAN

Florida-bred millionaire and multiple Grade 1-winner Imperial Hint, 12, was euthanized following a lengthy battle with laminitis it was reported Tuesday in several publications including The Paulick Report.

After making his last start in February of 2020, Imperial Hint was retired and stood his entire stallion career, beginning in 2021, at Clear Creek Stud in Folsom, La. His first crop included stakes-winner Tdz Hint of Power and stakes-placed Sweet Morgan Leigh.

Named the Florida-bred Horse of the Year, Champion Male Sprinter and Older Male in 2018 by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association, Imperial Hint raced was owned by the late Raymond Mamone and trained by Luis Carvajal Jr.

Known as the “Little Rocket”, Imperial Hint won the Vosburg (Grade 1) in 2018 and 2019, the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1) in 2018 and 2019, the True North (G2) in 2018, Smile Sprint (G3) and General George (G3) in 2017 and three other stakes. He also made two appearances in the $2 million TwinSpires Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), finishing second in 2017 and third in 2018.

 

In the 2019 Vanderbilt, he set a Saratoga Race Course track record, covering six furlongs in 1:07.92, a record that stands today.

 

Imperial Hint was by Imperialism out of Royal Hint, by Lahint and was bred in Florida by Bert and Martha Pilcher’s Shade Tree Thoroughbreds. After a slow start to her career as a broodmare, Pilcher acquired Lahint as a gift from longtime client Mamone. 

“I always thought [Lahint] would cross well with a stallion from the Danzig line,” Pilcher said Wednesday. “Get Away Farm had Imperialism [by Langfuhr, a son of Danzig], so I went to look at him at the stallion show and I won a breeding in a drawing.”

Imperial Hint won 14 of 25 career starts, 11 of which were black-type stakes, with two seconds and four thirds with earnings of $2,209,055.

Return to the August 13 issue of Wire to Wire