Shalapour dies after gallop
The four-year-old colt, bred by the Aga Khan, was bought by Markus Graff out of John Oxx’s stable in December and made his first appearance for the Middleham trainer just two weeks ago when runner-up at Southwell.
“He just walked off the gallops and keeled over. We haven’t had the result of the post mortem yet but it was most likely a heart problem or a ruptured aorta,” said Johnston.
“It’s very sad for Markus after he’s bought such a nice horse, as he’s done so well buying that kind of horse in the past.
“We were all very excited about him. He was the ideal sort of galloping companion for Brahminy Kite, he’d run third in last year’s Irish Derby and you don’t like to lose horses like that.
“It was just one of those things. It could have happened at any time. He just went up there for a canter, he just walked off the gallops 100 yards or so then just started to stagger and keeled over. Kevin Dalgleish was on him but he jumped off before the horse went down.”
