He ran 2nd in 12 Group 1 races, defeated Sunline and tragically died in the Emirates Stakes

Shogun Lodge won three Group One races, and remarkably ran 2nd in a further 12 Group 1 races. On the 8th November 2003, Shogun Lodge collapsed and died while competing in the Emirates Stakes. It was later revealed he died of a heart attack after suffering a lung haemorrhage during the race. Shogun Lodge was a brown gelding from the American sire, Grand Lodge by the mare, Pride Of Tahnee (by Best Western). He was trained by Bob Thomsen at Randwick. Bob rode 40 winners as an apprentice - most trained by his master, TJ Smith and all on metropolitan tracks. Shogun Lodge has to be ranked among the best four racehorses to date by Grand Lodge and good debates may be had about how he compared with European champion Sinndar, high-class international performer Grandera and three-time Group One winner Freemason. There is no debate about which of the three that raced in this part of the world won the hearts of Australian racegoers.

Shogun Lodge made a winning debut in the Listed Canonbury Stakes at Randwick on 3 October 1998, and won three of his four starts prior to the Golden Slipper, in which he started favourite and finished a close third to winner Prowl. At three and four, Shogun Lodge won his Group One races, the Epsom Handicap, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and the George Main Stakes, in which he defeated the champion mare Sunline. Shogun Lodge won stakes races at two, three, four, five, and seven, and prize money of $4,640,315. In addition, Shogun Lodge was runner-up in 12 Group One races, including the Doncaster Handicap (twice) and the Victoria and AJC Derby's, and, since the introduction of the Group system in the late-1970s, few if any horses have been runner-up in more. These 12 races included defeats by the champions Northerly, Sunline, and Lonhro, and he lost three races by a short-half-head. In one of his greatest performances, Shogun Lodge was beaten by Sunline in head-bobbing finish to the 2002 Doncaster Handicap, in which both horses carried topweight of 58 kilos, and gave 6.5 kilos to Defier, who went on to win three Group One races at weight-for-age. That was to be the last of the three times, all in Group One company, that Shogun Lodge met Sunline and the score stands as testament to the quality of both horses: Sunline, two wins and a second; Shogun Lodge, a win, a second and that Cox Plate eleventh.

At his next start, in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Shogun Lodge ran one of his worst races, finishing second-last, and, in an ominous sign was found to have had an irregular heart reading. After his first and only winless season at six, Shogun Lodge won the City Tattersalls Lightning Handicap first-up as a seven-year-old and was sent to Flemington for two further races. In the early stages of the second of these races, the Gr.1 VRC Emirates Stakes, Shogun Lodge suffered a fatal heart attack and collapsed. It was his 58th start in a career that began with a win just over five years before.
His upset trainer, Bob Thomsen, stated with raw emotion
   "Oh God. I've probably handled the best horse this country's ever had. The best horse ever to put his head through a bridle was Tulloch and I handled him....I'll tell you what, Shogun wasn't far behind him."

Racing Victoria's director of veterinary services, Dr John McCaffery confirmed Shogun Lodge’s death was “spontaneous and unpredictable” and was not related to any pre-existing condition.

RACE RECORD - 58: 13-12-8
EARNINGS - A$4,640,315

Canonbury Stakes (1998)
Skyline Stakes (1999)
Spring Stakes (1999)
George Main Stakes (1999)
Tulloch Stakes (2000)
Hollindale Stakes (2000, 2001)
Epsom Handicap (2000)
Canterbury Stakes (2001)
Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2001)
Theo Marks Stakes (2001)