09 January 2023 , 12:35
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A pair of stallions have died in a freak incident after being attacked by a swarm of bees while they were grazing.
Sanus Per Aquam, who was bred and trained by Derby-winning trainer Jim Bolger, and Air Support, who raced in the US, suffered fatal injuries when they were stung by thousands of bees at the Indian stud farm where they were standing.
According to witnesses the horses were panicked by the noise of the swarm and then became the target of the attack at the 450-acre Kunigal Stud in Karnataka. Although vets were called, they were unable to save them.
“By the time our security people saw them, they had already collapsed on the ground,” Zeyn Mirza, managing director of United Racing & Bloodstock Breeders Limited which runs the stud farm, told the Times Of India.
“The security immediately called the vets who arrived in ten minutes but since thousands of bees had attacked them, both had too much toxins in their bodies and couldn’t survive that.
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"One of them died the same evening at 10pm and the other died on Friday morning.”
Jim Bolger: bred and trained Sanus Per Aquam before his sale to India's oldest stud farm (GETTY)Sanus Per Aquam, who was ten, won three of his ten starts for Bolger including the Group 3 Somerville Tattersall Stakes at Newmarket in 2015 before he was sold to stand at India’s oldest stud farm.
The 15-year-old Air Support was a four-time Group winner in the US and sired the 2020 Indian Derby winner.