Derby hero dies at stud Newmarket trainer William Haggas was in a reflective mood today, after the death of Shaamit, the horse that gave him and jockey Michael Hills their first Classic successes when winning the 1996 Derby. After covering 25 of a book of 200 mares at Scarvagh Stud in Co. Down, the son of Mtoto suffered a haemorrhage in his intestine and was put to sleep on Saturday night. The results of a post-mortem are not expected to be known for some time. Haggas said today: 'I have a colt and a filly by Shaamit, both three-year-olds, but sadly it doesn`t look as if they`re going to be anything like as good as Shaamit was. 'The good thing is that a large number of his yearlings have just gone through the sales ring in South Africa and they did fantastically well, the buyers really took to them, so hopefully one of them could turn out to be a Classic winner in South Africa. 'That would be nice as he really was a very good horse and it would be nice to see him get some credit.' Haggas has found success at the level of Shaamit hard to come by since then and admitted: 'It seems so long ago. It was a great day and we really enjoyed all the build-up and then to see him do it first time out was brilliant. 'It`s tough and I don`t know if I`ll get another one like him but I`ll keep trying.'
