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

FINAL FIELD for the R1,25MILLION Gr2 ELAN GOLD CUP to be run over 3200m on Saturday July 30:  

DRAWS TO BE TELEVISED LIVE @ 5:18pm ON TELLYTRACK THIS EVENING (19 JULY 2016)

Sc# Horse               Mass   MR       Draw   B  A  T  Jockey         Trainer

1   MASTER SABINA       60.0  107 (107)    0      A  T  G Lerena       Geoff Woodruff

2   HELDERBERG BLUE     59.5  105 (105)    0      A     G van Niekerk  Mike Bass

3   OVIDIO              59.5  105 (105)    0      A     P Strydom      Justin Snaith

4   COLTRANE            58.5  102 (102)    0   B  A     B Lerena       Joey Ramsden

5   KINGSTON MINES      58.5  102 (102)    0   B  A     D Dillon       Mike de Kock

6   BALANCE SHEET       57.5  101 (100)    0   B  A     K de Melo      Dean Kannemeyer

7   THE CENTENARY       57.0   99 ( 98)    0      A     W Marwing      Mike de Kock

8   ARCH RIVAL          56.5   97 ( 97)    0   B  A     R Danielson    Geoff Woodruff

9   SOLAR STAR          56.5   96 ( 96)    0      A     S Randolph     Dean Kannemeyer

10  CAPE SPEED          55.5  100 ( 93)    0      A     A Delpech      Dean Kannemeyer

11  STEBBINS            54.5   98 ( 91)    0   B  A  T  …………   Weiho Marwing

12  FORTUNE FELLA       54.0   90 ( 89)    0      A  T  …………   Devin Little

13  ENAAD               53.5   89 ( 88)    0      A     S Khumalo      Mike de Kock

14  ZAFIRA              53.0   93 ( 86)    0      A    *C Murray       Weiho Marwing

15  KINAAN              53.0   84 ( 77)    0      A     D David        Mike de Kock

16  SMART MART          53.0   83 ( 82)    0   B  A     M Yeni         Mike de Kock

Reserve Runners

17  THREE BALLOONS      53.0   85 ( 84)    0   B  A     Reserve 1      Mike Bass

18  STORM WARNING       56.5   96 ( 96)    0      A     Reserve 2      Johan Janse van Vuuren

ends

 

Voting in some categories for this season’s Equus Awards is going to be tough on the judges and there will likely be plenty of soul searching and arguments come Saturday night, July 30, when voting takes place.

With three Gr1 races and the Gr2 eLan Gold Cup to be decided on Super Saturday along with three other Gr2’s, voting could be made easier or more complicated and there are sure to be a few contentious decisions in the mix.

As far as the two-year-old colts go it looks a straight fight between Gr1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion winner Always In Charge and Gr2 Golden Horseshoe winner Zodiac Ruler. With only three Gr1 races on offer in this category and the filly Cloth Of Cloud winning the Gr1 SA Nursery it could all come down to the Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes in a fortnight’s time. Both Always In Charge and Zodiac Ruler are entries with the latter drawn 1 and the former at 10, a gate that is likely to come in a few spots at final acceptances. If both run the result could very well decide where the award is headed.

The filly’s category is a little more complicated. Cloth Of Cloud won the SA Nursery beating the colts and is unbeaten to date while The Secret Is Out won the Gr1 Allan Robertson Championship and Gr3 Strelitzia Stakes. Neither filly is nominated for Super Saturday but Seattle Singer is. Corne Spies’s filly, second on debut behind The Secret Is Out and second in the Gold Medallion, is nominated for three races. She is drawn 27 in the Premiers Champion Stakes over 1600m, 11 in the Thekwini Stakes over the same distance and 5 in the Gr2 Umkomazi Stakes over 1200m. Fursa, winner of the SA Fillies Nursery, is also an absentee on Super Saturday but Final Judgement, Dawn Calling and Sail, first, second and third respectively in the Gr2 Daisy Golden Slipper are among the nominations

Of the three-year-old fillies Bela-Bela, third in the Gr1 Paddock Stakes behind Smart Call, winner of the Gr1 Woolavington 2000, the Gr2 Daisy Fillies Guineas and sixth in the Gr1 Vodacom Durban July is an obvious candidate along with Gr1 Cape Fillies Guineas winner Silver Mountain.

The colt’s award will be hotly debated. Triple Crown winner Abashiri will be in the mix along with Gr1 Cape Guineas and Gr2 Dingaans winner Noah From Goa and Gr2 Canon Guineas and Gr1 Daily News winner Rabada. Marinaresco put his hand up when second to The Conglomerate in the Vodacom Durban July after winning two legs of the Winter Challenge Series in the Western Cape. He is an entry for the G1 Mike and Carol Bass Champions Stakes on Super Saturday but has drawn wide and may not take his place although a win would be fitting as this will be Bass’s last meeting before retiring.

In the Older Male category, it will be difficult to look past Legal Eagle after his wins in the Gr1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate, Gr1 HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes and the Gr1 Premier’s Champion Challenge even though sprinter Talktothetstas is officially rated one-pound superior.

Older Filly or Mare throws up an intriguing contest with the likes of G1 J&B Met winner Smart Call, multiple Gr1 winner Inara and top sprinter Carry On Alice at the top of most people’s list. Inara has won five races this season including three Gr1’s.

Top sprinter could rest between Talktothestars and Carry On Alice with Red Ray also in contention after his Mercury Sprint win.

For Champion Miler it will be difficult to look past Legal Eagle but Middle Distance throws up a puzzle. Smart Call easily beat Legal Eagle in the J&B Met but the latter has since come out and won the Gr1 Premier’s Champion Challenge. His season is done but a win for The Conglomerate in the G1 Mike and Carol Bass Champions Stakes could make it interesting.

Champion Stayer is often a category with thin form and many times has hinged on the outcome of the Gold Cup. The category is judged at 2400m and further so Abashiri’s win in the Gr1 SA Derby makes him a solid contender in a wide open category.

So while some are obvious candidates for an Equus Award there are other categories that are up for serious and possibly contentious debate.

Andrew Harrison

Vodacom Durban July-winning trainer Joey Ramsden spoke of the emotional roller coaster he had ridden as trainer of the luckless “machine” Red Ray and of just how much the five-year-old entire’s Gr 1 Mercury Sprint victory on Saturday meant to both himself and jockey Anton Marcus.

Ramsden has bundles of outstanding memories in his training career, but one which will never fade is of a gallop Red Ray put up over six furlongs at Kenilworth under Andrew Fortune in which he annihilated the older Gr 1-winning filly Blueridge Mountain by some ten to fifteen lengths giving away weight.

In his next start, his first as a three-year-old, Red Ray beat the subsequently named Equus Horse Of The Year Legislate by 2,5 lengths in the Gr 3 Cape Classic over 1400m under Marcus. It was an impressive display, but Legislate was not well known at that stage and had started at odds of 20/1.

Therefore the talking point became Ramsden’s seemingly over bold statement of Red Ray’s ability when interviewed for a live Tellytrack audience in the winner’s enclosure. He said in the interview he regarded Red Ray as “similar but probably better than Variety Club”. The latter had by that stage won four Gr 1s, had proved himself one of the best milers the country had ever seen, and had twice been named Equus Horse Of The Year.

However, Ramsden stood by his statement on Saturday after the Mercury Sprint win.

He said,  “I always felt Red Ray was the equivalent of Variety Club, if not better. This horse was a living, running machine of absolute epic note. I have never been one to cry when horses move on, but when this horse went away to Dubai I absolutely cried. He was a very unlucky horse at three from terrible, terrible draws and should have won a Gr 1. When we brought him to Scottsville and he got beaten from a 15 draw when they all went up the other side, I literally cried that night. We ran him in races like the Queen’s Plate from bad draws.

“He is an amazing horse and he’s just as good going to the front, although he probably doesn’t quite get home over a mile, as he is being held up. I was lucky enough that year to have some brilliant horses like Variety Club and a very good filly called Blueridge Mountain, and Red Ray made mincemeat of them all. And he was never a morning glory horse, everything he did he reproduced. Whether it happened on the track due to various factors, it was just one of those unlucky things. If ever I was frustrated over a horse, and through none of his own fault, it was with him.

“He is and was a living, walking machine and one of the most handsome horses I have trained. You only have to look at his head to see this horse will make it no matter what he does. I am glad the public got to see the best of him today. They could tell from Anton’s interview how much he thinks of him and thought of him too. I would like to think we were not totally bananas in what we felt about his true ability.”

 

Marcus said in the winning interview on Saturday, “This horse on raw ability is probably the best horse in the country.”

The great jockey had been at “sixes and sevens” to explain Red Ray’s below par run in the Gr 2 Post Merchants. Ramsden said simply nothing had gone right for Red Ray that day and felt he had also been a touch unlucky in the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint, which was his comeback from a year-and-a-half layoff.

Ramsden and Markus Jooste’s racing manager Derek Brugman went back to the drawing board and decided to fit blinkers for the first time in the Mercury Sprint.

Anton Marcus retrospectively described this decision as “a stroke of genius.” The great jockey said working out how the race would pan out had been like trying to decipher hieroglyphics. However, Red Ray travelled down to the start well in the blinkers and after breaking well managed to find the rail quite comfortably in suitably fast conditions. He was then given a perfect lead by Captain Alfredo at a fast enough pace to allow him to use his considerable stride.

When asked the question in the straight, Red Ray responded magnificently and passed the line full of running and two lengths clear of a quality field. It was the second year in succession the Markus and Ingrid Jooste silks had been carried to victory in the Mercury Sprint. This time they did the one-two as the Mike Bass-trained six-year-old Night Trip enjoyed the step down in trip and stayed on strongly from a handy position for second. Three Gr 1-winning sprinters, Real Princess, Gulf Storm and Talktothestars, filled the next three places.

The Western Winter entire’s winning time of 69,31 seconds, albeit with the aid of a tailwind, was considerably quicker than Captain Of All’s time of 70,84 last year, despite the latter having won by five lengths and being accorded a merit rating of 126.

The race put the cherry on the top of a fine season for Red Ray’s breeders Lammerskraal Stud, who also bred SA Triple Crown winner Abashiri.

Ramsden heaped praise on his Summerveld assistant trainer Alson Ndzilana, whom he described as a “supreme horseman.”

He added later, “Today Anton (Marcus) showed exactly how good the horse really is, he made me feel very, very proud of Red Ray and exceptionally proud of Anton himself.”

Ramsden was going to savour every moment of the vindication on Saturday and it was not a selfish vindication because his only concern after making that bold statement back in October 2013 had been the fear he had made a fool of the horse.

He concluded, “Maybe this horse means a bit more to me than The July.”

David Thiselton

Pictures: Nkosi Hlophe and Candiese Marnewick

South Africa’s only Frankel filly, Miss Frankel, will be going into training in Durban with Dennis Drier at the end of the month.

Boom horse Frankel, who became a world-wide legend in winning all 14 of his racecourse starts, has had his first runners as a stallion this year and all six of his progeny to have raced so far have won.

Little surprise, then, that Drier is “over the moon” to be handed Miss Frankel, the second foal of Avontuur Stud’s well-performed mare Val De Ra and due to race in the Taberer’s Avontuur Stud silks.

It will be a while before racing fans see the chestnut filly, who only turns two on 1 August, in action. “She hasn’t even been broken yet,” said Drier. “She’s coming straight off Avontuur Farm and will only debut next year.

“I’ve been to see her a couple of times and she’s lovely, very correct.”

Cunco gave Frankel his first winner in May at Newbury and his most recent was Seven Heavens at Ascot on Friday last week. He already has Group 3 and Listed placings to his credit – Queen Kindly and Cunco respectively.

According to “Racing Post”, Seven Heavens, who cost 620,000 guineas as a yearling, travelled sweetly to the front before asserting himself in the final 200m and jockey Robert Havlin said: “I’ve ridden two Frankels now and they’ve both wanted to get on with things at home, but come raceday they’re as good as gold.”

John Gosden, who trains Seven Heavens, said: “He’s a grand horse and did it well. He hit the front a long way out and was on his own in the middle of the course from the two pole, so he did well to win as he did. I wouldn’t be in a rush with him and would rather bring him along gradually.”

Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Khalid Abdullah who raced Frankel and in whose silks Seven Heavens races, said on “Sporting Life”: “We’re very pleased with him. There are various options for him at a higher level like the Richmond Stakes. Equally so, there are options like various novice events. We are just seeing how he progresses and comes out of the race so he can tell us where we want to be.”

Drier also has care of Avontuur’s other high-profile import, the Oasis Dream filly Dream De Ra, who is also from Val de Ra. Dream De Ra was born in Britain to southern hemisphere time.

About to turn three, Drier said: “She’s doing well. She’s a nice filly, although she hasn’t got the quality or beauty of Miss Frankel. But she’s a nice, strongly built, well put together filly.”

TABnews