Horse, Dog & Sports Broodmare of the Year Cara Rafaela Dies

RacingHorse

Trusted Member
Cara Rafaela (Quiet American–Oil Fable, by Spectacular Bid), the Grade I-winning dam of champion Bernardini (A.P. Indy), has been euthanized due to the infirmities of old age, Darley announced Friday. She was 23. Bred in Kentucky by Mike Rutherford, Cara Rafaela was a $70,000 purchase by Goncalo Borges Torrealba at the 1994 Keeneland September Sale. Conditioned by D. Wayne Lukas, the grey was second in the 1995 GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies before annexing the GI Hollywood Starlet that season. She hit the board in five more Grade I races at three–including a third in the Kentucky Oaks–and retired in 1997 with earnings of $884,452 from an overall record of 24-4-8-2.

Cara Rafaela’s first foal was Ile de France (Storm Cat), who was GISP for the Borges Torrealba family’s Stud TNT and eventually produced GISW Love and Pride (A.P. Indy). Her second foal, Bold Legacy (Seattle Slow), was a $1.35-million Keeneland July yearling. Sheikh Mohammed purchased Cara Rafaela privately in 2002 while she was carrying Bernardini, who would go on to annex the 2006 GI Preakness S., GII Jim Dandy S., GI Travers S. and GI Jockey Club Gold Cup before finishing second in the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic and eventually earning champion 3-year-old honors. Bernardini, who earned more than $3 million on the track, now stands at Darley’s Gainsborough Farm in Kentucky and ranks seventh on the 2016 North American general sires list.

Cara Rafaela, who earned 2006 Broodmare of the Year honors for Bernardini’s exploits, was pensioned at Gainsborough in 2014.

Continue reading...
 
Top