Old Friends, the Thoroughbred Retirement Center in Georgetown, Kentucky, has announced that Breeders’ Cup Champion Alphabet Soup has been pensioned at the farm.

The gray son of Cozzene out of the Arts and Letters mare Illiterate, Alphabet Soup was a late bloomer for owner Georgia B. Ridder, winning his first stakes at age 4 when he captured the 1995 Grade 3 Native Diver and the Grade 2 Del Mar Breeders’ Cup Handicap.

In 1996 he was the victor in the San Antonia Handicap, the Pat O’Brian Handicap, and the San Pasqual Handicap en route to his greatest triumph. In the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Classic, Alphabet Soup defeated the "invincible" Cigar, as well as that year’s Preakness Stakes winner Louis Quatorze, while setting a new track record at Woodbine.

Retired in 1998 to Adena Springs having captured 10 of 24 starts and earnings of over $2.9 million, Alphabet Soup has since sired 48 stakes winners, among them Grade 1 winners Egg Drop and Alphabet Kisses and champions Our New Recruit, Phantom Light, and Sovereign Award winner Alpha Bettor