A BRAIN blockage is thought to have led to Big Bad Bob’s fatal accident at the Irish National Stud last weekend. The prolific stallion, aged 16, collided with a fence post in his paddock and suffered serious injuries.

John Osborne, chief executive of the INS, said that post-mortem tests carried out by the Irish Equine Centre indicated “a blockage in his brain caused him to lose awareness and led to his collision with a fence post.”

Big Bad Bob represented the sireline tracing back to the INS’s first stallion Royal Charger. “While fully owned by Cristina Patino he was a good fit for us and proved very popular,” said Osborne. “We have a long tradition of hard-knocking stallions like Lord Gayle and Verglas, which delivered winner after winner for breeders, just like Big Bad Bob is doing.”

Trained for Mrs Patino by John Dunlop, Big Bad Bob won four of his six starts as a two-year old including the Autumn Stakes at Ascot in 2002.

As a three-year-old, he was second to Kris Kin in the Group 3 Dee Stakes and went on to win the Prix Ridgway at Deauville and Group 3 Furstenberg-Rennen at Baden-Baden.

Big Bad Bob retired to Islanmore Stud at the age of five and covered a number of Mrs Patino’s own mares. Despite his unfashionable profile (by Bob Back), his talent as a sire quickly shone through with early winners including Bob Le Beau and Bible Belt.

Off the back of this success, he was transferred to the Irish National Stud in 2011 where he went from strength to strength with high-profile winners including Tashweeq, Bing Bang Bong and Bocca Baciata, who poignantly won a listed race at Gowran Park last weekend.

FIRST TIME

Among breeders who have supported Big Bad Bob are Shadwell, Juddmonte, and the Aga Khan. In 2016, he’ll be represented for the first time with full Irish National Stud-bred crops of two, three and four-year-olds.

Osborne said: “I’m really sorry for Mrs Patino, who adores all her horses but particularly Bob as she raced and bred him and he was pretty close to being a classic contender. It has been a lovely story of what can happen in a game dominated by the superpowers. His success defied conventional wisdom and he has to be saluted for that - he was a game changer and something to be treasured.”