Longtime racehorse Dead Solid Perfect Passes Away at Age 39

According to his lifelong owner Bridget Eukers, the former racehorse Dead Solid Perfect passed away on November 8. This winter, Dead Solid Perfect gained notoriety as possibly the oldest living Thoroughbred in the United States.

He was 39. For the first half of 2022, Eukers' horse, now named "Rush" in his second life as an off-track Thoroughbred, was in good health, she reported on November 9. Rush had a foot abscess in the beginning of the fall, and he suffered a slight head injury from a tumble this summer. Additionally, his lifelong paddock buddy, the 25-year-old Quarter Horse "Cowboy," died of old age. After making some improvement, Eukers said, the horse was unable to get up out of his stall on Tuesday morning, possibly due to an injury sustained in a fall. A lethal injection was administered to him. Before his death on September 23, 2016, Prospect Point held the record as the oldest Thoroughbred in the United States, having lived for 38 years and 203 days.

Some foreign Thoroughbreds, including at least two Japanese horses, have been reported to have reached their low 40s. Preston Madden of Kentucky bred the dark bay or brown horse Dead Solid Perfect, who was sired by Raise a Cup and out of the Olden Times mare Kame Yen. Late in life, he began to show signs of greying, a trait that may have been genetic given that one of his ancestors, Native Dancer, is also known as the Gray Ghost, which is how Eukers refers to him.