Red Ray’s stunning Gr1 Mercury Sprint victory at Greyville on Saturday was tinged with sadness after news filtered through that his dam Nacarat passed away last weekend.
The outstanding Lammerskraal broodmare succumbed to a fight with laminitis and was twenty years old at the time of her passing.
Nacarat – one of the best
A daughter of former Horse Of The Year and Gr1 J&B Met winner Pas De Quoi and the outstanding Northfields mare Tawny Red, Nacarat was herself a more than useful performer.
She won four times from 1200-1400m and was placed another five times from just 15 outings, and scored a smashing ten and a half length win first time out.
However, it was as a broodmare that she truly excelled.
Retired to stud in 2000, Nacarat is the dam of no fewer than ten winners to date, of which a stunning seven are black type performers!
Her first foal was the talented Chambre – a dual winning daughter of Rakeen, who has since gone on to produce the useful Western Winter gelding Mr Roy – who finished third to champion 2yo Seventh Plain in the 2015 Gr3 Godolphin Barb Stakes.
Nacarat’s first stakes performer was the talented Western Winter daughter Vermilion.
The latter, in a brief career of just nine outings, won four and finished second (to full sister Nania) in the Gr3 Prix Du Cap. Vermilion has also made a bright start to her stud career, with her early winners including the useful Go Deputy fillies Vitoria and Ventura.
Vermilion’s own sister, Nania, was born in 2005.
This cracking filly, one of the best of her generation at two, won five times including the G1 Thekwini Stakes and also beat Fillies Guineas winner Rei Rei and outstanding broodmare Our Table Mountain when triumphant in the 2008 Gr3 Riverworld Prix Du Cap.
Nacarat’s great run of form as a broodmare continued – in 2007, she was sent to Lammerskraal’s G1 winning Deputy Minister horse Go Deputy and produced the talented filly Adobe Pink.
The smart Go Deputy mare Adobe Pink
The latter proved a top class performer, with her six victories including a treble of stakes races, notably the Listed Sun Classique Handicap, Queen Palm Handicap and East Coast Handicap. Adobe Pink, who reeled off four wins on the bounce at one stage, also finished second in the 2014 East Coast Handicap, when having to lug no less than 60 kgs!
Returned to Lammerskraal’s late, great sire Western Winter in 2008, Nacarat came up with yet another stakes winning daughter in the form of True Valor – whose wins included the Listed East Coast Oaks.
Western Winter sired Nacarat’s next three foals – all of whom have proven to be high class performers.
Her 2009 son, the entire Red Ray, has been a top-class sort..
Red Ray – a stallion prospect
He won Saturday’s Gr1 Mercury Sprint, in his third start since his return from overseas.
A brilliant winner of the Gr3 Cape Classic, the Western Winter son has been placed in no fewer than four Grade One races, with Red Ray’s top efforts including a runner up efforts in the G1 SA Nursery, G1 Golden Horse Sprint and G1 Cape Flying Championship.
The handsome horse (who won his first three races on the bounce) was exported to Dubai but got injured and was unraced following his single outing there.
Brutal Force – Gr2 winner
Red Ray’s big full brother, Brutal Force, was bought back at the 2013 Cape Ready To Run Sale for a South African record price of R4.5 million.
The strapping chestnut has since gone on to show himself to be a high class galloper, with his wins including the Gr2 The Merchants and the R1 000 000 Cape Thoroughbred Sales race, and he also finished a close, and unlucky second, in the 2016 Gr1 Betting World Cape Flying Championship –where Brutal Force accounted for subsequent Gr1 winners Carry On Alice and Talktothestars.
Nacarat also has a promising 2yo this season in the form of Bishop’s Bounty (an own brother to Nania, Brutal Force and Red Ray).
The latter was unlucky not to win the Listed The Sun International Summer Juvenile Stakes (beating subsequent Golden Slipper winner Final Judgement) when making his debut and has since gone on to win two in a row and last time out finished fourth in the Gr3 Cape Of Good Hope Nursery.
www.capebreeders.co.za & SP Editorial Staff
