Godolphin broodmare Cara Rafaela, dam of Darley stallion Bernardini, dies

G1 winner Cara Rafaela, dam of 2006 Eclipse Champion Three-Year-Old Bernardini, has been euthanized due to the infirmities of old age.

By Quiet American out of the Spectacular Bid mare Oil Fable, Cara Rafaela was bred in Kentucky by Mike G. Rutherford.  A $70,000 purchase at the 1994 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Cara Rafeala won the 1995 G1 Hollywood Starlet and was placed in seven other G1 events, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Kentucky Oaks, for trainer D. Wayne Lukas and owner Gonzalo Borges Torrealba.

Retired after her four-year-old campaign, Cara Rafaela’s first foal was the Storm Cat filly Ile de France, who finished third in the G1 Santa Anita Oaks and is the dam of multiple G1 winner Love and Pride (A.P. Indy). 

Cara Rafaela was purchased privately by Sheikh Mohammed in 2002 while carrying her fifth foal, the A.P. Indy colt Bernardini.  Bernardini would go on to become one of Sheikh Mohammed’s most successful runners in the USA, winning the 2006 Preakness, Jim Dandy, Travers, and Jockey Club Gold Cup en route to Champion Three-Year-Old honors.  Thanks to Bernardini’s accomplishments, Cara Rafaela was named 2006 Broodmare of the Year.

Pensioned in 2014 after producing her last foal, the two-year-old Tapit colt Brookline, Cara Rafaela had been living out her retirement at Sheikh Mohammed’s Gainsborough Farm in Versailles, Kentucky.