Onaga, dam of grade I winner Aragorn and this year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected sale-topping yearling, was found dead Aug. 14 in Ireland. Owned by the Lyon family’s Summer Wind Farm, 15-year-old Onaga had resided at Sheikh Mohammed’s Kildangan Stud in County Kildare, Ireland.
“We don’t know what caused her death, but preliminary reports showed she hemorrhaged,” said Karen Bailey, who owns Summer Wind near Midway, Ky., with her parents, Frank Lyon Jr. and his wife, Jane. “We’re waiting for the necropsy report.
“My husband (farm manager Mark Moloney) and I had been out to see her earlier. She was in unbelievable shape, all dappled out from head to toe.”
Onaga was in foal to Raven's Pass, who won the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I) for Sheikh Mohammed and his wife, Princess Haya. Raven’s Pass stands at Kildangan.
Irish-bred Aragorn, by Giant's Causeway , was one of the top turf runners of 2006, winning two grade I stakes and a pair of grade II stakes and running second in the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Mile (gr. IT). He stands at stud at William S. Farish’s Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Ky.
Summer Wind privately acquired Onaga in foal to Storm Cat after she was bought back for $1.475 million at the 2003 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. She was consigned by Indian Creek, agent.
Onaga’s Saratoga sale-topping yearling, named On a Storm, sold for $2.8 million. By Storm Cat, the colt was consigned by Lane’s End, agent, and bought by John Ferguson, agent for Sheikh Mohammed.
Onaga, whose five yearlings that sold at public auction fetched $6,975,266, produced eight foals. Her seven foals of racing age include four winners.
By Mr. Prospector out of the grade II stakes-winning Northern Dancer mare Savannah Dancer, Onago placed in half of her eight starts for breeder/owner Allen Paulson.