Death of Oxley family's blue hen mare Darling My Darling aged 28

Darling My Darling, the granddam of 2024 champion three-year-old male Sierra Leone and multiple Group 1 winner Forever Young died on April 7 due to the infirmities of old age, according to owner/breeder Debby Oxley. The daughter of Deputy Minister was 28.

"We brought her in every night and Monday she could not get up," Oxley told BloodHorse. "She will be greatly missed at Fawn Leap. Her ashes will be kept here."

Oxley raced Darling My Darling after her husband, John, bought her as an anniversary present during the 1998 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $300,000. Debby Oxley was keen on the filly because she was out of 1994 Ballerina Handicap winner Roamin Rachel, who had impressed Oxley at the racetrack.

"I was a big fan of Roamin Rachel," Oxley told BloodHorse last year before Sierra Leone captured the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. "She was a hard-knocking filly who always gave everything."

With trainer John Ward Jr., Darling My Darling was second in the Grade 1 1999 Frizette Stakes and Matron Stakes at two. She became a stakes winner at three in the Raven Run Stakes and won the Doubledogdare Stakes at four. She retired with a 5-2-1 record from 13 starts and earned $352,359.

Darling My Darling got off to a slow start as a broodmare. Her first two foals became winners but none of her first eight foals earned black type. Oxley said at no point had she ever thought of selling the mare.

"I have a deep emotional attachment to her; she was never going to be sold," she said. "It had not even been discussed. I just kept trying with her and it paid off."

Darling My Darling turned a corner in 2013 with a filly by Congrats named Forever Darling, who was sold for $8,000 during the 2014 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. After not meeting her reserve at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training, she wound up with trainer Richard Baltas, who raced her with partners Hebert Bloodstock and J K Racing Stable. She won the 2016 Santa Ynez Stakes before Katsumi Yoshida bought her privately. 

Forever Young: Dirt hero is the grandson of Darling My DarlingCredit: Edward Whitaker

Forever Darling is now in the Northern Farm broodmare band in Japan and is the dam of Forever Young, a four-year-old son of Real Steel and winner of this year's Saudi Cup and third in the Dubai World Cup. Last year, Forever Young won the Saudi Derby and UAE Derby before finishing a close third in the Kentucky Derby and third in the Breeders' Cup Classic. To date, he's won eight of 11 starts and earned more than $15.4 million.

In 2015, Darling My Darling produced a handsome Malibu Moon filly that Oxley kept and named Heavenly Love. With trainer Mark Casse, Heavenly Love became a winner in her second start and subsequently captured the 2017 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland. She added to her black-type credentials at 3 with a third in the Regret Stakes.

As a broodmare, Heavenly Love is carrying on her family's winning ways. Her second foal is Sierra Leone, who the Oxleys sold for $2.3 million during Fasig-Tipton's 2022 The Saratoga Sale to Coolmore's M.V. Magnier and Peter Brant's White Birch Farm.

The son of Gun Runner earned black type at two with a second in the 2023 Remsen Stakes. At three, he won the Risen Star Stakes and Blue Grass Stakes before finishing second by a nose in the Kentucky Derby to Mystik Dan and was a nose in front of Forever Young. He went on to place third in the Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes before sealing up championship honours with a victory in the Breeders' Cup Classic. Sierra Leone has earned nearly $6.1 million in earnings so far.

Darling My Darling produced 14 foals of which seven became racehorses and all are winners. Her progeny earned $964,645 on the track.

Heavenly Love has a yearling full sister to Sierra Leone named My Ariabella that the Oxleys are keeping. The mare produced a filly by Nyquist this year and is back in foal to Gun Runner.

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