First Dude , a grade 1-winning homebred for Double Diamond Farm and Florida Stallion of the Year in 2017 and 2018, died Sept. 23 at the Ocala, Fla., farm owned by Donald Dizney. He was 19.
“He was an integral part of not only our own family but all of our Double Diamond Farm family; from Jesse Rodriguez, his groom and stallion manager, to our office staff and the many friends who visited him with peppermints,” Dizney said. “We all have so many sweet memories of not only his 3-year-old campaign, but of his stallion career as well. We feel today we have lost more than a stallion.”
Dizney and his wife, Irene, bred First Dude out of the stakes-placed winner Run Sarah Run, a daughter of Smart Strike they claimed in June 2004. The son of Stephen Got Even was her second foal and became her second stakes winner…