BEST PAL DIES AT AGE 10.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

Best Pal, seventh in career earnings among thoroughbred race horses, died shortly after noon Tuesday of an apparent heart attack in Ramona.

``It was just so sudden, he was only 10 years old,'' said Rick Taylor, manager of the Golden Eagle Farm, where Best Pal stood since his retirement from racing in early 1996. ``He was my all-time favorite horse. He was everybody's pal.''

Best Pal won 18 of 47 starts and earned $5,668,245. The California-bred gelding finished second in the 1991 Kentucky Derby, behind Strike the Gold, and won six Grade I races, including the 1992 Santa Anita and Oaklawn Handicaps and 1993 Hollywood Gold Cup.

``He was third (in earnings) for a long time,'' Taylor said. ``We really kind of thought we had a shot at being the all-time leader for a while, catching John Henry and Alysheba. Time caught up with us.

``He loved his peppermint candy and his carrots, I'll tell you that. Every day.''

Taylor said Best Pal was leading a set of two yearlings back from the track at the Golden Eagle Farm with farm trainer Frank Leal aboard when the horse started to stumble, then rolled over the iron rail and fell.

``At first, Frank thought he might have broken his leg,'' Taylor said. ``Then, he tried to get back up and just went down. He didn't take another breath when he went down the second time.''

Taylor said Best Pal would lead anywhere from 15 to 20 sets of yearlings to the track per day and did not show any negative signs prior to the incident.

``This is where he was born and raised, this was his home,'' Taylor said. ``This is a very sad day for me. There were a lot of tears here.

``We had him in front of our house. Whenever anybody drove in and out of the farm, they'd see him, and they'd stop and either give him candy or slow down, just to check on him.

``He had a whole bunch of baby sitters, that's for sure. He was such a special horse.''

Taylor recalled Best Pal getting overweight and depressed shortly after being retired.

Then, things changed.

``He was so used to the limelight and glamour,'' Taylor said. ``All he did was ride out and lead the yearlings out to the race track every day. The yearlings are kind of flighty, they'd always follow him.

``He'd get three or four miles of good riding in, we'd jog him around the track every day. He was happy. Every Sunday was off, every holiday was off, it was like a regular job.

``He was so happy. Today, he was just prancing around.''

Fiji sidelined: Sunday's $700,000 Matriarch for fillies and mares at Hollywood Park suffered a defection Tuesday morning when trainer Neil Drysdale announced probable favorite Fiji will miss the race because of a cough.

Drysdale said Fiji began to cough following a Sunday workout in which she drilled 7 furlongs in 1:28 on the turf course under Kent Desormeaux.

``We can't take any chances, especially since she's going to remain in training and run next year,'' Drysdale said.