Topic: Princess Rooney

Princess Rooney (1980 – October 7, 2008) was an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse who was the first winner of a Breeders' Cup race to be inducted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame

Racing at age two, Princess Rooney won all six of her starts that marked the beginnings of a three-year racing career in which she would finish out of the money only once. In 1983, at age three, she won five of her six races, including the Kentucky Oaks and finished second one time. At age four, Princess Rooney won five races then secured her first Eclipse Award as the United States' Champion Older Mare with a runaway victory in the 1984 Breeders' Cup Distaff.

Retired after her Breeder's Cup win, in 1985 Princess Rooney was in foal to leading sire Danzig when Texan George Aubin purchased her at the Keeneland Sales November auction for $5.5 million, at the time the third-highest amount ever paid for a broodmare. Unfortunately Princess Rooney turned out to be less than a success in breeding and ten years later was sold for $130,000 to the Gentry Brothers Farm near Lexington, Kentucky where she has been since 1995. In 2004 she produced her last foal, House of Words. House of Words is a 2008 winner.