by Jeff Lowe

Strawberry Reason, the dam of 2002 champion two-year-old male Vindication, died on June 29 from a head injury suffered in a paddock accident at Stone Farm in Paris, Kentucky. Her death came 11 days before Vindication was euthanized on July 10 because of an irreparable gastric rupture.

The 16-year-old Strawberry Road (Aus) mare out of Pretty Reason, by Hail to Reason, died after being kicked in the head, said Anna Colombo, general manager of owner-breeder Virginia Kraft Payson’s Payson Stud.

Strawberry Reason was carrying an A.P. Indy foal and had delivered an Unbridled’s Song filly in February.

“It was a big loss, very shocking,” Colombo said. “If she died from some sort of a disease, that’s one thing, but a casual kick from another mare, it’s just tragic.”

Vindication, by Seattle Slew, was the third foal out of the 1995 Martha Washington Stakes (G3) winner.

Satish and Anne Sanan’s Padua Stables purchased Vindication for $2.15-million at the 2001 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings.

Vindication won each of his four career starts, and he capped his championship season with a victory in the 2002 Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at Arlington Park for trainer Bob Baffert. A suspensory injury ended his career the next year, and he stood five seasons at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms in Lexington.

Two other yearlings out of Strawberry Reason sold for seven-figure prices at public auction.

Patrick Biancone signed a $1.9-million ticket at the 2003 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale for an A.P. Indy colt out of Strawberry Reason. Payson raced the colt, named Scipion, and he won the 2005 Risen Star Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds. Scipion stood his first season in 2008 at Murmur Farm in Maryland.

Circle E Racing purchased a Storm Cat filly out of Strawberry Reason for $1.7-million at the 2005 Keeneland September yearling sale. The filly, Queenie Cat, never raced and delivered a Distorted Humor filly in 2008.

Strawberry Reason also produced Blackberry Road, a three-year-old Gone West colt who has placed in three graded stakes races. She was barren in 2006 and delivered an A.P. Indy filly in ’07.

Bred in Kentucky, Strawberry Reason won four of 17 starts and earned $153,226.

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer