Amazombie (USA)
April 18, 2006 – September 18, 2023
Northern Afleet (USA) x Wilshe Amaze (USA), by In Excess (IRE)
Family 6-f
April 18, 2006 – September 18, 2023
Northern Afleet (USA) x Wilshe Amaze (USA), by In Excess (IRE)
Family 6-f
It took Amazombie until his 5-year-old season to really find his stride, but once he did, he did so with a vengeance. The American champion male sprinter of 2011, he was not quite able to repeat at age 6 but was among the best in the division.
Race record
29 starts, 12 wins, 5 seconds, 6 thirds, US$1,920,378
2011:
2012:
Honors
Assessments
Rated at 119 pounds in the Sprint category on the 2011 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, 17 pounds below overall highweight Frankel, 15 pounds below top-rated sprinter Black Caviar, and tied with Big Drama as the best sprinter on dirt.
Rated at 120 pounds in the Sprint category on the 2012 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, 20 pounds below overall highweight Frankel and 10 pounds below top-rated sprinter Black Caviar.
As an individual
A bay gelding with a powerful, muscular body, Amazombie was gelded after his sixth start. He was a laid-back horse during training hours but was all business when race time came. He usually saved his best effort for the last quarter-mile.
Connections
Foaled in California, Amazombie was bred by Gregg Anderson. He was campaigned by Thomas Sanford and co-owner/trainer Bill Spawr and was ridden to his triumph in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint by Mike Smith. In 2014, Sanford and Spawr arranged to retire the horse to the Old Friends retirement facility near Georgetown, Kentucky, and they continued to provide for his support throughout his life. Amazombie was euthanized on September 18, 2023, after fracturing an ankle while running in his paddock.
Pedigree notes
Amazombie is outcrossed through five generations. He is one of only two foals to live produced from Wilshe Amaze, a winning half sister to multiple listed stakes winner Flom’s Prospector (by Native Prospector). Wilshe Amaze is also a half sister to Flom’s Tizzy (by Cee’s Tizzy), dam of restricted stakes winner Bamboo Dream (by Finality).
Wilshe Amaze and her siblings are out of restricted stakes-placed Flom (by multiple listed stakes winner Floriano, by the multiple Grade 2-winning Best Turn horse Turn and Count), whose dam Delaware Squaw (by the stakes-winning Chieftain horse Delaware Chief) is an unraced half sister to multiple juvenile stakes winner Al the Doctor (by Valiant Dancer). The next dam in Amazombie’s tail-female lineage, Chiquita Linda, is a winner by multiple stakes winner Guerrero out of the winning Time Supply mare Supply Me.
Books and media
Santa Anita Park’s footage of Amazombie’s win in the 2011 Ancient Title Stakes can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u28kTlQC7Aw.
Fun facts
Last updated: September 21, 2023
Race record
29 starts, 12 wins, 5 seconds, 6 thirds, US$1,920,378
2011:
- Won Sentient Jets Breeders' Cup Sprint (USA-G1, 6FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Ancient Title Stakes (USA-G1, 6FD, Santa Anita)
- Won Potrero Grande Stakes (USA-G2, 6.5FD, Santa Anita)
- Won Sunshine Millions Sprint Stakes (USA-R, 6FD, Santa Anita)
- Won Tiznow Stakes (USA-R, 7.5FA, Hollywood)
- 2nd Sensational Star Handicap (USA-R, 6.5FD, Santa Anita)
- 3rd Triple Bend Handicap (USA-G1, 7FA, Hollywood)
- 3rd Bing Crosby Stakes (USA-G1, 6FA, Del Mar)
- 3rd Los Angeles Handicap (USA-G3, 6FA, HOL; disqualified from first)
2012:
- Won Bing Crosby Stakes (USA-G1, 6FA, Del Mar)
- Won Potrero Grande Stakes (USA-G2, 7FD, Santa Anita)
- 2nd Churchill Downs Stakes (USA-G2, 7FD, Churchill Downs)
- 3rd San Carlos Stakes (USA-G2, 7FD, Santa Anita)
Honors
- Eclipse Award, American champion male sprinter (2011)
- California-bred champion sprinter (2011, 2012)
Assessments
Rated at 119 pounds in the Sprint category on the 2011 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, 17 pounds below overall highweight Frankel, 15 pounds below top-rated sprinter Black Caviar, and tied with Big Drama as the best sprinter on dirt.
Rated at 120 pounds in the Sprint category on the 2012 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, 20 pounds below overall highweight Frankel and 10 pounds below top-rated sprinter Black Caviar.
As an individual
A bay gelding with a powerful, muscular body, Amazombie was gelded after his sixth start. He was a laid-back horse during training hours but was all business when race time came. He usually saved his best effort for the last quarter-mile.
Connections
Foaled in California, Amazombie was bred by Gregg Anderson. He was campaigned by Thomas Sanford and co-owner/trainer Bill Spawr and was ridden to his triumph in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint by Mike Smith. In 2014, Sanford and Spawr arranged to retire the horse to the Old Friends retirement facility near Georgetown, Kentucky, and they continued to provide for his support throughout his life. Amazombie was euthanized on September 18, 2023, after fracturing an ankle while running in his paddock.
Pedigree notes
Amazombie is outcrossed through five generations. He is one of only two foals to live produced from Wilshe Amaze, a winning half sister to multiple listed stakes winner Flom’s Prospector (by Native Prospector). Wilshe Amaze is also a half sister to Flom’s Tizzy (by Cee’s Tizzy), dam of restricted stakes winner Bamboo Dream (by Finality).
Wilshe Amaze and her siblings are out of restricted stakes-placed Flom (by multiple listed stakes winner Floriano, by the multiple Grade 2-winning Best Turn horse Turn and Count), whose dam Delaware Squaw (by the stakes-winning Chieftain horse Delaware Chief) is an unraced half sister to multiple juvenile stakes winner Al the Doctor (by Valiant Dancer). The next dam in Amazombie’s tail-female lineage, Chiquita Linda, is a winner by multiple stakes winner Guerrero out of the winning Time Supply mare Supply Me.
Books and media
Santa Anita Park’s footage of Amazombie’s win in the 2011 Ancient Title Stakes can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u28kTlQC7Aw.
Fun facts
- When an unraced youngster, Amazombie actually came to Spawr more or less by accident—Spawr thought he was buying another young horse from the same farm for US$5,000, and it turned out that the seller had actually been thinking of a two-for-one deal, which Spawr duly received. The second horse was Amazombie.
- On the final day for nominations to the 2011 Breeders’ Cup, Spawr got a phone call urging him to enter Amazombie, who by that time had the record to be among the race favorites for the Sprint. Spawr demurred on the grounds that he didn’t really have the money. The next thing he knew, he did, because a friend who had overheard the call contacted a mutual friend, and between them Spawr’s friends came up with the entry fee.
- In voting for the 2011 Eclipse Award in the champion male sprinter division, Amazombie received 201 first-place votes out of 248 cast.
- Amazombie’s victory in the 2012 Potrero Grande Stakes was winning ride number 5,000 for veteran jockey Mike Smith.
- Amazombie’s pasture buddy at Old Friends was Rapid Redux, who won the 2011 Secretariat Vox Populi Award and a special Eclipse Award after he set a new North American record of winning 19 straight races over the course of a single racing year.
Last updated: September 21, 2023