Princess Rooney (March 22, 1980 – October 7, 2008) was an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse who was the first winner of a Breeders' Cup race to be inducted into the U.S.
At age four, Princess Rooney won five races then secured her first Eclipse Award as the United States' Champion Older Mare with a victory in the 1984 Breeders' Cup Distaff.
[2] Retired after her Breeder's Cup win, in 1985 Princess Rooney was in foal to leading sire Danzig[3] when Texan George Aubin purchased her at the Keeneland Sales November auction for $5.5 million, at the time the third-highest amount ever paid for a broodmare.
Princess Rooney turned out to be less than a success in breeding and ten years later was sold for $130,000 to the Gentry Brothers Farm near Lexington, Kentucky, in 1995.
Princess Rooney was euthanized at Gentry Brothers Farm near Lexington October 7, 2008, due to complications of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM).