Some sad news but also some uplifting news about two former champions.

1994 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and champion 2-year-old filly Flanders was euthanized in mid-February when complications arose after she was injured in a paddock accident as Ashford Stud. The daughter of Seeking The Gold was 18. She delivered a Bernardini colt in January, who is doing well on a nurse mare.

Flanders, campaigned by Wayne Lukas for Overbrook Farm, won the Spinaway and Frizette, the latter by 21 lengths, to establish herself as a strong contender leading into the Juvenile Fillies. She and stablemate Serena's Song raced in tandem throughout and battled down the stretch, with Flanders prevailing by a head. It was a courageous effort, made even more so by the fact that the filly pulled up with a fracture sustained during the stretch drive and never raced again.

As a broodmare, Flanders immediately produced Surfside, champion 3-year-old filly of 2000 when she won the Clark Handicap, against males, and the Santa Anita Oaks, Las Virgenes and Santa Ysabel. Flanders, dam of the stakes-placed Flanders Fields, looks to have another quality performer in Battle Plan. The son of Empire Maker is 3-for-4 lifetime for Todd Pletcher and headed to the Oaklawn Handicap.

Meanwhile, 2007 Breeders' Cup Mile winner Kip Deville is nearly ready to head home following a life-threatening bout with laminitis.

Kip Deville made his last start Aug. 2 at Saratoga, finishing off the board in the Fourstardave. He was retired following a bout of colic; another episode, in October, eventually triggered laminitis, a hoof disease that has claimed the lives of such prominent horses as Secretariat and Barbaro.

But after various therapies and months of care at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, veterinarian Vernon Dryden says the horse could be discharged as early as next week.

Dryden says the casts on the horse's feet will need to be changed every 10 to 14 days and that he personally will continue to monitor Kip Deville on a weekly basis.

One of only two Oklahoma-breds ever to win a Breeders' Cup race, Kip Deville also won Grade Is in the 2007 Kilroe Mile and 2009 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap; he claimed back-to-back runnings of the Grade II Maker's Mark Mile in 2007 and 2008.