Champion stayer Doriemus (NZ) has been put down at Melbourne’s Living Legends retirement farm.  The 24 year-old gelding had been suffering from an on-going hoof injury.

Doriemus (Norman Pentaquad) is one of just 11 horses to complete the Caulfield – Melbourne Cups double in the same year.

Initially trained by Jim Gibbs, he won two of his first three starts in New Zealand before transferring to Lee Freedman in Melbourne.  He came into his own as a five year-old claiming the 1995 Cups’ double.

Doriemus was unplaced in both races the following year and then suffered a bleeding attack in the 1997 Australian Cup.  But he bounced back in the spring to finish a distant second to Might And Power (Zabeel) in the Caulfield Cup before going down a nose to the same horse in the Melbourne Cup.

Ironically, the pair later shared a paddock at Living Legends.  Doriemus was retired after he was unplaced in the 1998 Melbourne Cup with a record of 9 wins and 12 placings from 44 starts and prizemoney of almost $3.60 million.

“It is very sad,” Freedman said at the Magic Millions yearling sale.  “He was a great stayer of the modern era.  He never looked much, but he had a great motor.”

DORIEMUS