NEWS
Laminitis claims champion Waya at 27
Posted: Tuesday, December 18, 2001
Champion Waya (Fr), who produced stakes winners Vidalia and De Niro during her broodmare career, was euthanized last week due to complications from laminitis at Bettina Jenney's Derry Meeting Farm near Cochranville, Pennsylvania. The 27-year-old daughter of Faraway Son out of War Path III, by Blue Prince, was owned by prominent owners and breeders George Strawbridge and Peter Brant. Waya had been pensioned since delivering a foal in 1998, an unraced filly by Red Ransom named Bolsena.
"She was getting on with age and had laminitis, so it was time to put her down," Jenney said. "It was a very difficult thing to do."
Bred in France by Dayton Ltd., Waya was unraced at two. Beginning her career as a three-year-old in her native country, she won three of her first eight starts, including the 1977 Prix de l'Opera (Fr-G2) at Longchamp and Prix de Royaumont (Fr-G3) at Chantilly and placed in three other group stakes events.
Exported to the United States prior to her four-year-old season, Waya was a dominant runner on both the East and West Coasts, winning 11 of 21 starts in 1978 and '79. Her victories included the 1979 Beldame Stakes (G1) and '78 Man o' War Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park, '79 Top Flight Handicap (G1) at Aqueduct, and '79 Santa Barbara Handicap (G1) at Santa Anita Park.
Waya won five of 12 starts in 1979, all stakes races, and was named champion older mare. Overall, she won 14 of 29 career starts with six seconds and four thirds and earned $822,948.
During her career as a broodmare, Waya was represented by eight winners from 11 of her 12 foals that started. Her first foal was Nijinsky II's daughter Vidalia, who won the Criterium Femminile (Ity-G3) and was the second highweighted filly at two on the Italian Free Handicap in 1983. Vidalia also finished second in the New Castle Handicap at Delaware Park during her career.
De Niro, a son of Gulch born in 1992, won the '94 Tremont Breeders' Cup Stakes (G3) at Belmont Park and was third in Saratoga's Sanford Stakes (G3) that same season. Currently at stud in Pennsylvania, De Niro won two of 12 career starts and earned $110,844.
Waya was also the dam of Rage, a full brother to De Niro who was third in the 1995 Perpetuate Stakes at Aqueduct; and Gina Romantica, a daughter of Secreto who was third in the '92 Long Island Handicap (G2) at Belmont.—Tom Law
