Lammerskraal Stud landed the Broodmare of the Year accolade at the Equus Awards on Tuesday night with the Jallad mare Strawberry Lane, dam of this year’s Grade 1 Jonsson Workwear Garden Province Stakes winner Redberry Lane.

Strawberry Lane is out of the Australian-bred Centaine mare Taineberry. She won one race over 1600m and was placed twice in just six starts. She is a full-sister to Jalberry, whose four wins included a Grade 3 and a Listed event and whose multiple Graded places included a third in the Grade 1 SA Fillies Sprint. Jalberry has also produced three stakes winners at stud including Grade 2 winner Purple Diamond.

Redberry Lane is Strawberry Lane’s second Grade 1 winner and third stakes performer. She also produced the Grade 1 Cape Guineas winner Solo Traveller, who also won the Grade 2 KRA Guineas and the Grade 3 Cape Classic as well as the Listed Duchess Of York Cup in Mauritius.

The four-year-old Sean Tarry-trained Redberry Lane is by the late great Lammerskraal stallion Western Winter. She also won the Listed Syringa Handicap over 1600m in May this year and her five successive second place finishes which preceded that included finishing just half-a-length back in the Grade 3 Acacia Handicap. She was merit rated only 100 when lining up in the Garden Province, 19 points below the favourite Snowdance, so her short-head victory over the latter under a fine ride by newly crowned national champion jockey Lyle Hewitson was against all the odds.

Strawberry Lane’s other Graded performer was Strawberry Ice, who finished second in the Grade 2 KRA Fillies Guineas and at stud produced the Grade 2 Gold Bracelet winner Flying Ice.

It was the second time this decade Lammerskraal had won the Equus Broodmare award and the fourth time this century. The others to do it were Turf Blazer (Dancing Champ), dam of the Grade 2 winners Citius and Weston Blaze, Fashing (Dancing Champ), dam of the great Yard Arm, and Akinfeet (Fort Wood), dam of the like of three-time Grade 1-winner Capetown Noir.

Strawberry Lane also won the Cape Breeders broodmare of the year award.

She is currently in foal to Visionaire and will be sent to him again this season.

“It is a very good mating,” said Lammerskraal Stud manager Sally Bruss.

Meanwhile, Akinfeet’s daughter, In The Dance by Gimmethegreenlight, made a sensational debut over 1160m at Turffontein on Saturday. The Tarry-trained three-year-old was taken out at the start so lost a couple of lengths and was then green in the running. However, she then showed an exceptional turn of foot and won easing up by 3,5 lengths against a fairly decent field.

Bruss said, ”It was particularly exciting because she is from the first racing crop of Lammerskraal’s new owner Peter Graaff.”

Bruss selects the horses to be kept for racing and has an uncanny knack of choosing good performers.

Lammerskraal have seven lots on the National Two-Year-Old Sales, which start today (Thursday).

They have a colt and filly by their own stallion Go Deputy, a Wylie Hall filly who is out of Enchantress, a Duke Of Marmalade colt, a Gimmethegreenlight filly, a Soft Falling Rain filly and a Marchfield colt.

By David Thiselton