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Updated: September 24, 2026 at 6:47 pm
First Dude and Donald Dizney at Hollywood Park in 2011 | Benoit
Double Diamond Farm’s First Dude (Stephen Got Even–Run Sarah Run, by Smart Strike) has passed away at the age of 19, according to a release from the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association (FTBOA) Thursday afternoon.
The Florida Stallion of the Year in 2017 and 2018, the leading freshman sire in Florida in 2015, and the state’s leading second-crop sire in 2016, First Dude sired 16 black-type winners, including Shamrock Rose, the 2018 champion female sprinter and winner the GI Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, as well as winner of the GII Lexus Raven Run Stakes.
“He was an integral part of not only our own family,” said Double Diamond’s Donald R. Dizney, “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. 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.”
First Dude campaigned as a homebred for Dizney while under the tutelage of Hall of Famer Bob Baffert. Among his wins were the GI Hollywood Gold Cup Handicap and the GIII Alysheba Stakes, while his five Grade I placings included the Preakness Stakes, the Belmont Stakes, and the Travers Stakes.
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