Aquilegia dies while foaling

Grade 2 winner and stakes-producing mare Aquilegia was euthanized Thursday because of complications from foaling, Helen Alexander's Middlebrook Farm in Lexington, Ky., announced.

The 18-year-old mare had been carrying a Giant's Causeway foal, which also died.

Bred by Alexander, David Akroyd, and Helen Groves, Aquilegia was a daughter of Alydar and the 1983 Broodmare of the Year, Courtly Dee, making her a full sister to 1983 champion juvenile filly Althea.

Aquilegia won the Grade 2 New York Handicap in 1993 and the Grade 3 Black Helen Handicap in 1994. She placed in four other stakes, three of them graded, and retired with a career record of 8-5-9 from 30 starts. She earned $446,081.

Aquilegia produced Bertolini, a Group 3 winner who was England's leading freshman sire of 2005. She also is the dam of stakes winners Amelia and Alchemilla.