Tranquility Lake, top class on the track and in breeding shed, dies at 21

Tranquility Lake, a multiple Grade 1 winner and multiple Grade 1-producing broodmare, has died at age 21, her owners announced Tuesday.

The daughter of Rahy was owned by Pam, Martin, and Max Wygod, and Emily Wygod Bushnell, and will be buried at Lane’s End in Versailles, Ky.

Bred in Kentucky by North Central Bloodstock, Tranquility Lake was purchased by the Wygods for $250,000 at the 1996 Keeneland July yearling sale.

She went on to win 11 of 27 starts for earnings of $1,662,390, running first for trainer David Hofmans, and later Julio Canani.

Tranquility Lake was an Eclipse Award finalist for champion older female and turf female in 2001 with a campaign that featured wins in the Grade 2 Clement L. Hirsch Handicap and Palomar Handicap, and the Grade 3 Wilshire Handicap, along with runner-up efforts in the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Stakes, Ramona Handicap, and Gamely Breeders’ Cup Handicap.

In earlier campaigns, she notched wins in the Yellow Ribbon and Gamely Breeders’ Cup Handicap, along with the Grade 2 Santa Barbara Handicap and another running of the Palomar Handicap.

Tranquility Lake then moved on to become a prominent broodmare, both on the track and in the sales ring. She produced eight foals, with six to race and four winners.

The mare has three graded/group stakes winners, all sired by Storm Cat. Her first three foals to race were multiple Grade 1 winner After Market, who now stands in Turkey; followed by U.A.E. Group 2 winner Jalil, who resides in China; and Grade 1 winner Courageous Cat, who stands in New York. Recap, an unplaced product of the Storm Cat/Tranquility Lake cross, stands in California.

The Wygod family has sent only one of Tranquility Lake’s foals through the auction ring, Jalil, who sold to John Ferguson, bloodstock adviser for Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum for $9.7 million at the 2005 Keeneland September yearling sale. It was the highest price in the sale’s history until the following year, when Ferguson went to $11.7 million to secure Meydan City.

Tranquility Lake’s lone daughter, the 2-year-old Smart Strike filly Meadowsweet, is based at San Luis Rey Downs, training toward her first start in California with Clifford Sise Jr.