$2M mare Holiday Runner dies after foaling

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Holiday Runner, dam of Seventh Street and the $2.15 million top-priced broodmare at Fasig-Tipton's 2009 November mixed sale, died on Feb. 6 after foaling complications.

The 10-year-old Meadowlake mare produced a Tiznow colt late on the night of Feb. 5 at Summer Wind Farm in Georgetown, Ky., whose owners Jane and Frank Lyon Jr. bought her at the Fasig-Tipton auction. But she died several hours later, early on the morning of Feb. 6, according to Summer Wind broodmare manager Karen Bailey. The Tiznow colt is doing well on a nurse mare.

"When you live with horses, you just never know what to expect," said Bailey, also the Lyons's daughter. "We love all our horses, but especially our mares. It's a devastating loss, but especially to lose one you had so much hope for."

Holiday Runner was insured. The Lyons bought her to fill the gap left by Onaga. That 15-year-old Mr. Prospector mare, Aragorn's dam, died days after her $2.8 million Storm Cat colt topped the 2009 Saratoga yearling sale.

Holiday Runner's first foal, Seventh Street, won the Apple Blossom and Go For Wand in 2009 and finished second in three other stakes, two of those Grade 1 races. Holiday Runner also is the dam of Grade 2 winner Reynaldothewizard.

Holiday Runner was a Grade 2-placed stakes winner out of the Dixieland Band mare Dixie Holiday.