World champion trotter and multi-millionaire Bee A Magician delivered her first foal, a Muscle Hill colt, at the Pennsylvania Equine Care Center in York on Thursday.
Bee A Magician, purchased for $90,000 as a yearling, made her last start in November 2016, finishing eighth as the odds-on favourite in an Open Handicap at Yonkers Raceway. Her final start came after a season consisting of only seven starts, including a win by disqualification in the $150,000 Mack Lobell Invitational at the Meadowlands. She was then sidelined leading into the $200,000 Maxie Lee Memorial due to minor soft tissue damage in her front leg from a paddock accident.
She returned to the races in mid-October, winning as the favourite in an Invitational on International Trot Day at Yonkers. She followed with three more starts, including a second in the $250,000 Breeders Crown Mare Trot and a second in the $250,000 TVG Free For All Mares Trot at the Meadowlands before making her final steps on the track.
Training for the 2017 season, Bee A Magician had again sustained a soft-tissue injury in the same front leg that sidelined her in May the year before.
A mare by Kadabra out of the Balanced Image mare Beehive, Bee A Magician raced 72 times in her career, earning $4.1-million and winning 45 times. Owned by Mel Hartman, Herb Liverman and David Mc Duffee, the multiple O'Brien and Dan Patch-winning mare capped a career which included wins in the Hambletonian Oaks, Breeders Crown, Arthur J. Cutler Memorial and the Maple Leaf Trot.