Sean Tarry receives the Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes trophy. (Candiese Lenferna Photography).
Sean Tarry can never be written off and his unusually low national log position of tenth at the halfway mark of this season was unlikely to last long and he has duly climbed up to a current fourth position behind runaway leader Justin Snaith with Alan Greeff and Vaughan Marshall in second and third places respectively.
Tarry could be second to Snaith for the third time in succession by the end of the season as he looks to have a lot of firepower approaching the remaining Highveld season features and the Champions Season features, although he looks to be too far behind Snaith to mount a challenge for a sixth title.
Tarry said the Maine Chance Farms-bred Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes winner Cosmic Speed would probably go for either the Gr 2 IOS Drill Hall Stakes or Gr 2 WSB Guineas into the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge.
Cosmic Speed is a full-brother to the Gr 2-winning sprinter Cosmic Light and a half-brother to the useful twice Gr 2-winning sprint-miler Cosmic Highway, so would not be a certainty to stay further than a mile, although his speedy dam is by stamina influence Silvano and he runs as if he will get the 1800m of the Gr 1 Champions Cup.
Twice Gr 1-winner over 1200m, Lucky Lad , did not stay on Saturday as he faded late to finish last in the Horse Chestnut and Tarry said he would be coming down in trip for his future targets. The Gr 1 wfa Computaform Sprint will be first on his agenda and there will be the Gr 1 wfa Mercury Sprint over 1200m at the end of the season and races like the Gr 2 IOS Drill Hall Stakes over 1400m, with possibilities also being the now Gr 2 Golden Horse Sprint over 1200m, which he won last year but whose handicap benchmark has not yet been set, and the Gr 2 Post Merchants over 1200m.
Tarry’s next Gr 1 winner, to the surprise of some, could be Rascova. The Lancaster Bomber filly is coming off a win in the Gr 1 Maine Chances Farms Majorca Stakes and has been moved to Tarry’s Randjesfontein yard. She takes in the Gr 1 Empress Club Stakes on March 29 and Tarry said another obvious target would be the Gr 1 Ridgemont Garden Province Stakes and the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint could be an option too.
He will have another Gr 1 chance on March 29 in the SA Derby with Legend Of Arthur, whom he clearly thinks highly of. The Lancaster Bomber colt was a 4,10 length third in the Gr 1 TAB SA Classic over 1800m on Saturday after a slow start.
Tarry said, “He was just too far out of his ground, but was finishing like a steam train. He would have had a very good prep going into the Derby and he is a Daily News July kind of horse. This horse is going to come and smash a field soon, he just has to relax in my opinion.”
Don’t Cry For Me finished a disappointing last in the SA Classic having won well over the course and distance last time.
Tarry said, “He has won in the going before. I don’t know if he travelled a bit too freely early on, I’m not too sure and haven’t got an answer.”
He will have options for the Gr 2 Wilgerbosdrift SA Oaks too with the Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic third and fifth-placed fillies World Of Alice and Gerbera, who were beaten seven lengths and 11,25 lengths respectively by the easy winner Fiery Pegasus.
He said, “World Of Alice ran a very good race, she just gets a little bit too far back. That run will serve her well going into the Oaks. Gerbera didn’t run a bad race. She’s a big, heavy girl and I don’t know if the heavy going would have effected her, because she is 500kg plus. It might be trickier for a heavy horse like her to get out of the mud than a lighter horse. But, either they go in the going or they don’t and I thought she ran a fair race to a point and we’ll have to just see whether we go forward into the Oaks or not.”
Hotarubi had an amazing win over 1400m as he was seemingly beaten before switching outward and storming home under Piere Strydom.
Tarry said, “He is such an irritating horse. He ran a cracker but he doesn’t aways give of his best. Sometimes he pulls, sometimes he won’t go. He’s not stubborn but seems to do his own thing. I will probably nominate for the Gr 1 Premiers Champions Challenge, because I don’t know whether there are many highly rated horses around in Jo’Burg, and I will nominate for the July.”
Tarry believes Let’s Go Now, who ran second in the Listed Wilgerbosdrift Acacia Stakes over 1600m with topweight, would also be going for the Empress Club Stakes. He said Durban would be on the agenda for her but he said she had not seemed to enjoy it there last season, so he would have to look at changing the approach.
Tarry is not sure of the number but said he thought he had won 76 Gr 1 races to date and he could win more this season. Apart from the races above already mentioned, his two-year-olds are starting to shape up for his favourite Hollywoodbets Scottsville meeting and he should have a number of runners there too for the SA Fillies Sprint (Rascova, Mrs Browning, Troppo Veloce etc) and one or two for the Golden Horse could materialise.
