The victory of Red Ray in Saturday’s Gr.1 Mercury Sprint was a bittersweet occasion, as just four days earlier, Lammerskraal Stud had lost his dam Nacarat.

According to stud manager Sally Bruss, the 20-year-old mare had been suffering from Cushing’s disease (a dysfunction of the pituitary gland) and suddenly foundered very badly in the days leading up to her death.

Founder is the layman’s term for Laminitis, an acutely painful affliction of the feet where the laminae, which lie between the horny wall of the hoof and the pedal bone, become inflamed. This notoriously dreaded affliction has claimed the lives of many prominent thoroughbreds, amongst which the great Secretariat.

A Lammerskraal homebred herself, Nacarat, one of just a handful of daughters of Pas De Quoi at stud, showed ability on the track by winning four races as a three-year-old. However, it was as a broodmare that she was destined to make her mark. Red Ray is one of seven stakes performers amongst her ten winning foals, of which six were sired by the late resident champion stallion Western Winter.

A sibling to Gr.1 Thekwini winner Nania and Listed East Cape Oaks victress Valor Red, Red Ray is also an own brother to Brutal Force, winner of this season’s Gr.2 Merchants in the same Jooste silks, and to the Listed Summer Juvenile Stakes third, Bishops Bounty, all of which must surely now put Nacarat in line for the Equus award of Broodmare of the Year.

The mare’s last two foals are a yearling own brother by Go Deputy to the triple stakes winner Adobe Pink and a weanling colt by Western Winter’s champion sprint son What A Winter.

Nacarat’s legacy as a broodmare looks assured, as Red Ray is destined to exchange the rigours of a racing stable for life as a stallion. More importantly though, at least four daughters are treasured members of the Lammerskraal broodmare band: Valor Red, Adobe Pink, Gr.3-placed Vermillion and Chambre, who is already the dam of Gr.3-placed three-year-old Mr Roy.

Nacarat’s demise counts not just as a huge loss to the stud’s broodmare band, she has also taken a piece out of Sally’s heart: “She was a great mare to me and I will not only miss her grand presence, but also her extremely loving nature.”

Ada van der Bent