Polk, breeder of Daddys Lil Darling, Mongolian Saturday, dies

Nancy Polk, who got into racing and breeding late in life when buying Normandy Farm in Lexington, Ky., in the late 1990s, died Saturday morning of pneumonia in a Lexington hospital, just hours before her homebred filly, Daddys Lil Darling, finished fourth in the Grade 1 Beverly D. at Arlington Park.

Polk moved to Lexington from Michigan, where she and her late husband ran a successful travel agency. Under the Normandy banner, she bred the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner, Mongolian Saturday, as well as Daddys Lil Darling, a Grade 1 winner and an earner of more than $1.3 million for trainer Kenny McPeek.

McPeek said Sunday that Polk had been in frail health for quite some time and her three surviving daughters all were at her bedside at the time of death. Memorial services are pending.