'He was just a huge part of our life' - top-level winner turned sire dies at 14

Harris Farms' Grade 1 winner and multiple leading California sire Majestic Harbor died of apparent cardiac arrest, according to co-owner Loren Hebel-Osborne, who was part of the Gallant Stables Racing partnership that raced the horse.

Hebel-Osborne gave news of the stallion's death to Daily Racing Form.

Majestic Harbor, 14, reportedly died after covering a mare and will be buried at the horse cemetery at Harris Farms near Coalinga.

Bred in Kentucky by Liberation Farm and Brandywine Farm, the son of Rockport Harbor out of the stakes-placed French Deputy winner Champagne Royale was bought for $20,000 as a yearling by trainer Sean McCarthy at the 2009 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

The colt proved to be a durable racehorse who made 42 starts while racing from two to eight. He compiled a 10-8-7 career record and earned $1,295,814 while being conditioned alternately by Paul McGee in the Midwest, Louisiana and Texas, and McCarthy on the West Coast.

Majestic Harbor won or placed in 11 black-type stakes, getting victories in the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita Stakes, Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes, Mineshaft Handicap and Tokyo City Cup Stakes, both Grade 3. He also was third in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap.

"He was just a huge part of our life, and he gave us so much of his life to make ours bigger and brighter," Hebel-Osborne said in a statement.

"He had so much personality. He had so much talent. He had it all. We all loved him so much. Hard to believe that he is gone so soon."

Majestic Harbor entered stud in 2017 at Swifty Farms in Indiana, where he stood for two seasons before being relocated to Harris Farms after the 2018 breeding season.

He became California's leading freshman sire for 2020 with two black-type performers among his four winners that year. His daughters Diamond Solitaire and Pearl Tiara finished second and third respectively in the Indiana Stallion Fillies Stakes at Indiana Grand.

Pearl Tiara went on to become a multiple stakes winner at three and helped propel Majestic Harbor to the top of California's second-crop sire standings in 2021.

To date, Majestic Harbor has sired ten winners from 16 runners and Pearl Tiara is his chief earner, with $226,331 in purses.

Diamond Solitaire was runner-up in three more stakes at three and earned $182,613. Another top runner by the stallion was his gelded son Manuelito, who so far has won or placed nine times out of 15 starts and earned $105,169.

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