'Little mare with a big heart' - record-breaking black-type winner Xtra Heat dies aged 24

Hall of Fame racehorse Xtra Heat, whose 25 black-type wins is a modern-day record for a distaffer, has died at the age of 24. 

A diminutive bay bred in Kentucky by Pope McLean and partners, the daughter of Dixieland Heat out of the Hatchet Man mare Begin was known for her speed and class on the racetrack from 2000-03. 

Over 35 starts, she won 26 races, the overwhelming majority in black-type races. Among her highlights was a win in the 2001 Prioress Stakes at Belmont Park and six Grade 2 races. 

She also ran second by a half-length against males in the 2001 Breeders' Cup Sprint and the following year was third in the 2002 Dubai Golden Shaheen. Both of these gritty defeats came against males. She set a track record for six furlongs at Pimlico in 2001.

Worse than third only twice in her career, debuting in a maiden $25,000 claiming race, she earned $2,389,635 under the direction of trainer John Salzman Sr.

Xtra Heat won an Eclipse Award as the outstanding three-year-old filly of 2001 - a prize that typically goes to a dirt router. She was further recognised for her talent when inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2015. 

Toward the end of her racing career, Xtra Heat fell short of her reserve at the November Sale in 2002 at Fasig-Tipton when bidding stopped at $1.7 million. This was a far cry from her previous trips through the auction ring when the filly, who stood shy of 15 hands, sold for $9,100 as a weanling, $4,700 as a yearling and $5,000 as a two-year-old in training. 

After the November Sale, owners Kenneth Taylor, Harry Deitchman and Salzman sold her privately to Classic Star Stable for an undisclosed amount. She won two stakes for Classic Star in 2003 before her retirement, including the 2003 Barbara Fritchie Handicap, a victory that moved her past 1970s champion and fellow Hall of Famer Susan's Girl for the most added-money wins by a filly or mare in modern times.

Woodford Thoroughbreds purchased Xtra Heat privately through a Classic Star dispersal in 2006.

As a broodmare, Xtra Heat produced stakes winner Southwestern Heat, who went to stud in Australia; the stakes-placed X Rated Cat, who went to stud in Texas; and Elusive Heat, a $750,000 Fasig-Tipton February Two-Year-Olds In Training Sale graduate who became a stakes winner.

With her commercial appeal waning, Woodford retired Xtra Heat after she foaled an Outwork colt in 2019. Since then, she has led a life of leisure, enjoying a large paddock of green grass at Woodford Thoroughbreds in Reddick.

John Sykes, owner of Woodford Thoroughbreds, spoke about her in 2022, saying: "Xtra Heat knows her place in the world and is always first at feed time. Xtra Heat is confident in her bearing, but easy to be around. The little brown mare with a great big heart inspires our team to look for potential in every horse."

In a press release from Woodford Thoroughbreds on Thursday, Sykes added: "I have always been proud to have the privilege of owning and being responsible for a Hall of Fame horse. She will be greatly missed on the farm and by the team."

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