Sovereign Award-winning 2-year-old male, graded stakes winner, and 1993 Kentucky Derby (G1) runner Truth of It All died peacefully from natural causes July 24 at the age of 34 at his birthplace and retirement home, Hurstland Farm, near Midway, Ky.
By Darby Dan stallion Proud Truth and foaled Feb. 26, 1990, at Hurstland Farm from the multiple graded stakes-producing mare Cup of Honey, Truth of It All was sold by Hurstland to Sheldon Wolfe as agent for Al Schmidt of Buffalo, N.Y., at the 1991 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $14,500.
Winner of four of five starts, including the Grey Stakes (G3) at age 2, he was named Canada's 2-year-old male Sovereign Award winner for 1992. Campaigning for the 1993 Kentucky Derby, he finished third in the Lexington Stakes (G2) at Keeneland, prior to finishing 10th in Sea Hero's dramatic Kentucky Derby win.
Rescued after his last race, a claiming event for $2,000 claimers Sept. 14, 1997, at Los Alamitos Race Course, he was offered to Alfred Nuckols Jr. of Hurstland Farm for retirement.
"After the Sovereign Award he received for Hurstland as his breeder and the wonderful experience he took me on with Al and Marge Schmidt and Sheldon Wolfe, I told them that he had a home at Hurstland as long as I had a farm," Nuckols said.
He arrived at Blue Grass Field on a complimentary Tex Sutton flight eight days later.
"I picked him up with then farm manager Tim Overton in our box van and we returned him, after a short ride, to his birthplace at Hurstland where he enjoyed the last 27 years of his life, constantly enjoying his peppermints," said Nuckols.
Affectionately nicknamed "Dennis the Menace" for his actions as a 2-year-old by Sheldon Wolfe, Dennis had side gigs as a babysitter for weanlings early in his retirement before later being permanently buddied up with fellow retiree, Doc's Leading Lady (granddam of multiple graded stakes winner Get Smokin) in 2020.
