very soft and muddy and Mendez appeared to relish the surface. He raced in fourth and looked unlikely to win when Lear Fan went clear of the field in the straight. Under a strong ride from Asmussen however, he made relentless progress in the closing stages, overtook Lear Fan in the final strides and won by half a length, with Meis-El-Reem a short head away in third. In October, Mendez was brought back in distance for the Prix de la Forêt over 1400 metres but ran poorly and finished unplaced behind Procida. Assessment In the official International Classification for 1983, Mendez was given a rating of 76, twelve pounds behind the top-rated two-year-old El Gran Senor. The independent Timeform organisation gave him a rating of 121, ten pounds behind El Gran Senor. Timeform gave Mendez a rating of 128 in 1984, eight pounds behind their leading three-year-old and Horse of the Year El Gran Senor. In their annual Racehorses of 1984, Timeform noted his tendency to fight against his jockeys' attempts to restrain him but described him as "undoubtedly game". In the International Classification he was rated the twelfth-best three-year-old colt in Europe, thirteen pounds behind El Gran Senor. Stud record Mendez was retired from racing to become a breeding stallion at the Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard. In 1987, he was exported to Japan, where his last foal were born in 1996. Mendez died 25 September 1995 in Japan. By far the most important of his offspring was Linamix, who won the Poule d'Essai des Poulains and became a very successful breeding stallion, siring the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Sagamix, and the leading Australian racehorse Manighar. Mendez was a true-breeding (homozygotic) grey, meaning that all of his foals were also grey. Pedigree References 1981 racehorse births 1995 racehorse deaths Racehorses bred in France Racehorses trained in France Thoroughbred family 23-b