Well-known former Bermuda resident John Silvertand, prominent as both a player and administrator in local field hockey during the 1970s and ‘80s, has died in Florida following a long battle with cancer.

He was 62.

Silvertand hit the headlines in 2005 when the horse he bred, Afleet Alex, won the Preakness and placed third in the Kentucky Derby.

Having been diagnosed with cancer two years earlier and given just months to live, he described it as “the horse that kept me alive.”

The former sales manager at Burrows Lightbourn had the left the Island in 1984 to breed horses in Florida.

A colourful character responsible for launching the now defunct Bermuda Hockey Festival which brought in teams from both sides of the Atlantic, Silvertand had flown in the Royal Air Force and in 1978 was pilot for rock group Fleetwood Mac during the band’s US tour.

After watching Afleet Alex win the Preakness and days before the Kentucky Derby, Silvertand told The Royal Gazette: “The horse has kept me going.

“Just to be connected, to have your name in the paper, is my 15 minutes of fame.”