Trot Insider has learned that former O'Brien Award winner and stakes-winning producer Poof Shes Gone has passed away at the age of 17.
A daughter of Kadabra - Travelin Superlite, Poof Shes Gone was a $170,000 yearling purchase out of Harrisburg in 2008 by John Fielding, Mel Hartman, Herb Liverman and David McDuffee. Entrusted to Richard 'Nifty' Norman, Poof Shes Gone certainly lived up to her name as a freshman in 2009. To the competition, she was nowhere to be found the majority of the time, posting a 10-1-1 record with $1.076 million in earnings courtesy Grand Circuit victories in the Merrie Annabelle, Champlain, Peaceful Way, International Stallion Stakes and Breeders Crown before capping her season with a victory in the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final at Woodbine Racetrack.
At the time, only Snow White ($1.25 million) had a better rookie season in harness racing on the trot. Since, she's been eclipsed — only recently — by Venerable, T C I and Karl. As a result of her outstanding campaign, Poof Shes Gone was named the two-year-old trotting filly of the year for 2009 in both Canada and the U.S.
The three-year-old season wasn't as sensational for Poof Shes Gone, but she did muster a 4-2-3 summary from 14 starts with $283,353 in earnings to bring lifetime totals to 14-3-4 in 26 outings and nearly $1.36 million in purses. She took her mark of 1:53.1 in her 2010 Hambletonian Oaks elim at The Meadowlands, but Norman told Trot Insider at the time of her retirement that she was never quite the same after that race.
"She just got really swollen. She would just swell right up. Her legs, her neck, her head, her veins. It was really strange," said Norman in 2010. "It was like she was fighting something viral, but we couldn't find anything wrong with her. She just had no power after the Hambletonian Oaks and never really got it back. It wasn't a lameness issue at all, she just had no power."
Heading into her second career as a broodmare, Poof Shes Gone was owned by Hartman, Liverman and McDuffee, with Liverman selling his share to his partners in 2016. Poof Shes Gone's most notable offspring is Chestnut Hill, a $410,000 Lexington yearling who went on to win $710,483 during his two seasons of North American competition. His biggest win came in the 2020 Canadian Trotting Classic at Woodbine Mohawk Park at odds of 60-1.
Poof Shes Gone passed away on Sunday, April 7 after complications during foaling. The 2024 foal, a filly sired by Alrajah One IT, survived foaling according to McDuffee.
Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the connections of Poof Shes Gone.
(Standardbred Canada)
Poof She's Gone
My deepest sympathy to everyone connected to this wonderful horse.
She was perhaps my favourite trotting filly of all time and certainly the one that I had the opportunity to see in person on the racetrack, at Woodbine in the final of The Breeders Crown in '09 and then at Mohawk in the Elegantimage final on NA Cup night in '10. As a tremendous fan of her daddy, Kadabra and Nifty Norman and my favourite driver David Miller I was drawn to her on the catalogue page and even more watching her race on TV and simply fell in love with her when I saw in person.
Rest well Poof🥹🤗🥰