Fly So Free (March 3, 1988 – September 21, 2003) was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse. A grandson of U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Damascus, he was owned by New York City Broadway theatre producer and music publishing company owner Tommy Valando and his wife Elizabeth.

Fly So Free
SireTime For A Change
GrandsireDamascus
DamFree To Fly
DamsireStevward
SexStallion
Foaled1988
CountryUnited States
ColourDark Chestnut
BreederBruce Hundley & Wayne Garrison
OwnerTommy & Elizabeth Valando
TrainerScotty Schulhofer
Record33 : 12-5-3
Earnings$2,330,954
Major wins
Champagne Stakes (1990)
Breeders' Cup Juvenile (1990)
Hutcheson Stakes (1991)
Fountain of Youth Stakes (1991)
Florida Derby (1991)
Riva Ridge Stakes (1991)
Jim Dandy Stakes (1991)
Fall Highweight Handicap (1993)
Awards
U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt
Last updated on December 28, 2006

In 1990, Fly So Free capped off a successful two-year-old racing campaign with a win in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Voted 1990's U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt, he went into the 1991 racing season ranked as a top contender for the U.S. Triple Crown series of races. En route, Fly So Free won the spring 1991 Hutcheson Stakes the Fountain of Youth Stakes and Florida Derby in which he defeated two other top three-year-olds, Strike the Gold and Hansel. A few weeks later, in mid-April's Blue Grass Stakes, Fly So Free finished second to Strike the Gold.

For the 1991 Kentucky Derby, bettors made Fly So Free the second choice to Hansel but both horses disappointed, Fly So Free finishing fifth and Hansel tenth to winner Strike the Gold. Fly So Free was not entered in the 1991 Preakness Stakes or the 1991 Belmont Stakes as trainer Scotty Schulhofer felt he was unable to run longer races.[1] Instead, he competed in and won the Riva Ridge and the Jim Dandy Stakes.

Racing at age four, Fly So Free met with modest success, most notably a second to Strike the Gold in the 1992 Pimlico Special. At age five, near the end of the 1993 racing season, he won the Fall Highweight Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack, a race in which a horse's ability to carry weight is put to the test. After a 9th-place finish in that year's Breeders' Cup Sprint, Fly So Free was retired to stud duty at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Fly So Free sired five Group/Graded stakes race winners, including the 1999 Canadian Female Turf Horse Champion Free Vacation and the 2001 Dubai World Cup winner, Captain Steve.

In November 2002, Fly So Free was pensioned as a result of cardiac problems. He died of congestive heart failure on September 21, 2003, at Three Chimneys Farm, where he is buried.

Pedigree

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Pedigree of Fly So Free (USA), 1988[2]
Sire
Time For A Change (USA)
b. 1981
Damascus (USA)
b. 1964
Sword Dancer Sunglow
Highland Fling
Kerala My Babu
Blade of Time
Resolver (USA)
b. 1974
Reviewer Bold Ruler
Broadway
Lovely Morning Swaps
Misty Morn
Dam
Free to Fly (USA)
b. 1974
Stevward (USA)
b. 1959
Nashua Nasrullah
Segula
Sherry Jen Sun Again
Quittance
Dancing Lark (USA)
b. 1960
Native Dancer Polynesian
Geisha
Say Blue Blue Larkspur
I Say

References

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  1. ^ "FLY SO FREE WON'T RUN IN PREAKNESS, BELMONT". Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Fly So Free". Retrieved 9 January 2020.