Black Bear Island is a Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 racehorse from Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. Sired by Sadler's Wells

Sadler's Wells (horse)

Sadler's Wells was a Thoroughbred racehorse that was later a leading sire in France, Great Britain & Ireland and North America during the 1990s. He was foaled in 1981 in the United States, but achieved most of his racing and breeding fame in Europe....

 from the dam Kasora, Black Bear Island is a grandson of Northern Dancer

Northern Dancer

Northern Dancer was a Canadian-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and the most successful sire of the 20th Century. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association calls him "one of the most influential sires in Thoroughbred history"....

. Black Bear Island is full brother to six time Group One winner High Chaparral

High Chaparral

High Chaparral is a racehorse, winner of the Epsom Derby in 2002, and the winner of the Breeders' Cup Turf in 2002 and 2003 .-2001: Two-year-old season:...

.

In the lead-up to the Epsom Derby

Epsom Derby

The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...

, Black Bear Island raced in the Prix La Foret at Longchamp and finished 3rd, followed by a win in the Dante Stakes

Dante Stakes

The Dante Stakes is a Group 2 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbreds. It is run at York over a distance of 1 mile, 2 furlongs and 88 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in May....

. He finished tenth in the Derby. After being sold to American connections, Black Bear Island was shipped to Arlington Park and ran 2nd in the Grade One Secretariat Stakes. He subsequently raced unplaced in 3 further starts. Black Bear Island is still in training based in southern California with Julio Canani
After winning the York trial for Aidan O'Brien, the son of Sadler's Wells finished only tenth in the Derby behind Sea The Stars.

Sold to a partnership led by former Hollywood Park chairman RD Hubbard, Black Bear Island was narrowly defeated in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes on the Arlington Millioncard before joining Los Angeles-based trainer Julio Canani, for whom he was eighth in the Hollywood Derby in November.

According to the Daily Racing Form

Daily Racing Form

The Daily Racing Form is a tabloid newspaper founded in 1894 in Chicago, Illinois by Frank Brunell. The paper publishes the past performances of race horses as a statistical service for bettors on horse racing in the United States....

, Black Bear Island was being prepared for a US turf campaign this term when he suffered a fatal injury.