Whiffling, Dam of Champion Prairie Bayou, Dead

Whiffling, whose son Prairie Bayou won the 1993 Preakness Stakes (gr. I) and the year's 3-year-old male championship, was euthanized Dec. 5 at the de Kwiatkowski family's Calumet Farm near Lexington because of the infirmities of old age. The 20-year-old daughter of Wavering Monarch was in foal to Dixie Union.

Prairie Bayou, who raced as a homebred for John Ed Anthony and Mary Lynn Dudley in the name Loblolly Stable, was the first gelding to win the Preakness since Holiday in 1914. The victory came following a runner-up effort to Sea Hero in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I). Following the Preakness, Prairie Bayou suffered a fatal injury in the Belmont Stakes (gr. I).

Whiffling, who was bred by brothers Phil T. and Norman D. Owens in partnership with E. Allen Cowen, produced 13 registered foals, five of which were winners, including additional graded stakes winner Flitch. Calumet bought Whiffling for $1,050,000 in foal to Danzig at the 1994 Keeneland November breeding stock sale from Longfield Farm, agent for Loblolly.

Whiffling's two youngest foals are an unnamed 2-year-old filly by Orientate   and a Vindication yearling colt named Bane. Whiffling was produced from the Bold Ruler mare Queen's Gambit.