Kentucky Oaks Winner Summerly dies of colic

Summerly, Winchell Thoroughbreds’ 2005 Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner who later sold to WinStar Farm for $3.3 million at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton November sale, died of colic earlier this year.

WinStar President Elliott Walden confirmed the 19-year-old Summer Squall mare’s passing.

“She was one of the prettiest mares we had on the farm,” Walden said. “While she didn’t reproduce herself, she always was a good mother, and it was a privilege to have a Kentucky Oaks winner in the broodmare band.”

Tom Van Meter and Michael Lowenbaum co-bred Summerly out of their stakes-placed Mr. Prospector mare Dare I Go. Winchell bought Summerly for $410,000 at the 2003 Keeneland September yearling sale and put her into training with Steve Asmussen.

Summerly won four of her first six starts, including consecutive wins in the Silverbulletday S. (G3) and Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) in 2005. She lost the Ashland S. (G1) to Sis City but turned the tables on that foe in the Oaks with a gate-to-wire effort under Jerry Bailey to give Asmussen his first of two wins in the Oaks, and his first of nine Grade 1 wins at Churchill Downs.

Summerly closed her three-year-old season finishing third in the Mother Goose S. (G1) and second in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1), both behind Smuggler at Belmont Park. She raced as a four-year-old under the care of Scott Blasi, winning the Ashado S. at Saratoga Race Course before three unplaced finishes to conclude her career. Lifetime, Summerly won six of 14 races and earned $907,652.

As a broodmare, Summerly’s top progeny was the Group 3-placed Unbridled’s Song mare Allez Marie, dam of stakes winner Workaholic (by Sky Mesa). Her final foals are both by 2017 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Always Dreaming, a yearling filly and a weanling colt.