Clear Mandate dead after foaling complications

Clear Mandate, a multiple Grade 1-winning mare whose first three foals sold for a total of $9 million, was euthanized on Feb. 19 at Hagyard Equine Medical Center outside of Lexington, Ky., following complications of foaling, according to Pete Cline, the farm manager at Shawnee Farms, where Clear Mandate resided.

Clear Mandate had produced a foal by Tiznow on Feb. 11, but she had perforated her uterus during the foaling, according to Cline. She was sent to Hagyard, but the 19-year-old mare was unable to fight off an infection, Cline said.

“We fought it for a week, but she couldn’t ward it off,” Cline said.

By Deputy Minister out of the Sharpen Up mare Dream Deal, Clear Mandate won three Grade 1 races and placed in several other graded stakes. Bred by G. Watts Humphrey, the owner of Shawnee, and his aunt, Pamela Firman, Clear Mandate was retired to Shawnee after her five-year-old racing season, in 1997. She won 20 of 31 races and had career earnings of $1,085,588.

Her first three foals were blockbuster yearlings. Her first foal, by A.P. Indy and named Full Mandate, sold for $3.2 million, and her second, by Storm Cat and named Newfoundland, sold for $3.3 million. Her third foal, Mighty Tiger (also by Storm Cat), sold for $2.5 million. All three either won or placed in graded stakes, and all had careers as stallions.