California broodmare Lethal Leta dies at age 22

Lethal Leta, a stakes winner, graded stakes producer, and member of the Idaho Racing Hall of Fame, was euthanized May 7 due to foaling complications.

The 22-year-old Synastry mare was the dam of three winners from five to race, led by multiple graded stakes winner Lethal Heat and stakes winner Prevalent.

After a racing career that included four stakes wins and earnings of $655,988, Lethal Heat became her dam’s most expensive offspring, bringing $425,000 as a broodmare prospect at the 2009 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall mixed sale.

Bred in Idaho by WH/BCR Joint Venture, Lethal Leta was a multiple stakes winner at Les Bois Park in the Gem State, with road trips to Turf Paradise, Golden Gate Fields and the California fair circuit. She then became a regular in the stakes ranks at Bay Meadows Race Course during her 3-year-old season in 1994.

Lethal Leta won six stakes races on the Northern California circuit for owner Donnie McFadden from 1994-96, and then was shifted to Kentucky and the barn of trainer D. Wayne Lukas for the 1997 season. She only raced once for the new stable, finishing out of the money in a stakes race at Turfway Park, before she was retired. Lethal Leta finished her career with 12 wins from 32 races, including eight stakes wins, for earnings of $300,602.

The mare was retired to a broodmare career in Kentucky, where she produced Prevalent, before being purchased by California-based Madeline Auerbach and Barry Abrams to breed to their stallion Unusual Heat. The cross produced her most successful foal, Lethal Heat.

Lethal Leta’s accolades on the racetrack and as a broodmare earned her a place in the Idaho Racing Hall of Fame, making her one of nine horses to receive that honor.