Former West Australian shuttler Verglas has died following an accident at the Irish National Stud.  The 17 year-old had been covering substantial books in recent years at a fee of 10,000 euros.

Verglas (Ire) is the sire of English stayer Glass Harmonium who was runner-up to My Kingdom Of Fife in the G2 Hollindale Stakes at the Gold Coast on May 7.  The imported pair are pre-post favourites for the G1 Doomben Cup this Saturday.

Verglas was a half-brother to King’s Stand Stakes winner Cassandra Go and was trained by Kevin Prendergast to win the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot.  He returned at three to finish second behind Desert King in the Irish 2000 Guineas.

He retired to Haras de Haie Neuve in France and made it the hard way off a lowly fee.

Verglas had been based at the Irish National Stud since returning from John Andrew’s Alwyn Park in 2005.  He only arrived at the Serpentine property after first choice Keltos (Kendor) encountered fertility problems.

A son of Champion French sire Highest Honor (Kenmare), he was considered a suitable replacement after the runaway success of Mungrup Stud sire Metal Storm (Kenmare) in Western Australia.

In two southern crops, Verglas sired 57 winners of 205 races at a 53% strike-rate in Australia.  There were five stakes winners among that total in Perth – Ma Chienne (Tattersall’s Cup), Royal Devotion (Jungle Mist Classic), Sheenasaidgrey (Perth Stakes), Spirited One (Champion Fillies Stakes) and Verossi (J C Roberts Stakes).

His European stakes winners have been headed by G1 winners Silver Frost (French 2000 Guineas) and Stormy River (Prix Jean Prat).  Glass Harmonium was a G3 winner of the Gordon Richards Stakes for Sir Michael Stoute before arriving at Mike Moroney’s stable via Hong Kong.