Lead Kindly Light, 20, dead

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Lead Kindly Light, dam of Grade 1 winner and sire Gold Fever, died Feb. 28 at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., because of complications from foaling. The mare was 20.

Lead Kindly Light died while foaling a Quiet American filly, who also died about 12 hours later.

Lead Kindly Light, by Majestic Light, was a daughter of Arabian Dancer, a stakes placed Damascus mare. She also was a half-sister to Out of Place, a graded stakes winner and now asire. Lead Kindly Light raced for her breeder, Cynthia Phipps, from 1985 until 1988 and became a stakes winner with her victory in Belmont's Grade 3 Athenia Handicap in 1987. The same season, she finished third in the Grade 2 New York Handicap. She retired from racing with a career record of 23-6-5-1 and $216,037 in earnings.

Lead Kindly Light produced 10 foals, of which two were stakes winners. The better of those was the Forty Niner horse Gold Fever, who won the Grade 1 NYRA Mile Handicap, Grade 3 Riva Ridge Stakes, and Discovery Handicap before retiring with more than $480,000 in earnings.

Lead Kindly Light's second stakes winner was Emanating, a Cox's Ridge filly who won the Polly Drummond Stakes. Emanating also placed in the Grade 1 Test Stakes, Grade 2 Lake Placid Handicap, and Grade 3 All Along Stakes.

"We were very proud to have her here for her breeding career," said Claiborne manager Gus Koch. "She was a very nice mare, a kind mare, and we're sorry to lose her."