Sean Tarry with jockey Craig Zackey and Kevin Sommerville of Drakenstein Stud after they had combined to win the Gr 2 TAB SA Nursery with Green Diamond. (Candiese Lenferna Photography).
Sean Tarry has won the July with a SA Derby winner before, but he said he said the route his current SA Derby winner Legend Of Arthur takes into the Hollywoodbets Durban July will depend on a number of factors.
He also spoke about future plans for some of his other stars.
At present Legend Of Arthur is merit rated 117, which is the perfect merit rating for a Hollywoodbets Durban July-bound three-year-old male to have at the moment.
If the July were run tomorrow Legend Of Arthur would sneak in with the minimum weight for a three-year-old male of 53kg and he would not be under sufferance, going on 127-rated See It Again being topweight.
So the Daiily News 2000 might not be a good option if the like of 127 rated Eight On Eighteen and 126 rated Fire Attack are going to be running as there will then be the risk of a sizeable merit rating increase for Legend Of Arthur.
However, if an older horse does incur a significant merit rated increase between now and the Daily News 2000 and looks likely to be a July runner with a merit rating higher than 130 then the Daily News then might still be an option.
It might still be an option too if the like of Eight On Eighteen and Fire Attack don’t run.
Even that carries risks though, as was seen last year in the case of Green With Envy.
The latter was the highest rated runner in the Daily News, but such was the way the race panned out that he still ended up copping a four point raise from 123 to 127 and thus had to carry a tough 56kg in the July.
Tarry said he was not convinced Legend Of Arthur would be suited to Hollywoodbets Greyville.
He said, “He can quicken, but we have seen him to good effect at Turffontein, so it’s hard to say Greyville’s going to be great for him. As a juvenile (in the Gr 1 Premiers Champion Stakes) he was caught wide but ran on best of all, so I don’t think he is going to have a problem with the course, let’s put it that way.”
Looking at Legend Of Arthur’s three-year-old Highveld contemporary Fire Attack, he said the HKJC World Pool Champions Stakes race had not overly impressed him and he felt Fire Attack’s ten point raise to 126 was a “massive penalty.”
If the July was run tomorrow, Fire Attack would have to give Legend Of Arthur 4kg, so the Lancaster Bomber colt is in a good position and his original 33/1 ante-post odds are looking to be a steal for those who took it (he is now an 8/1 chance).
Tarry only just missed claiming the Derby/Oaks souble on Saturday as World Of Alice failed by a shorthead to catch the odds on favourite Fiery Pegasus, who opened up a big lead and held on.
Tarry said, “It was a cracking run and I think it was a little bit unlucky that those horses in front of her let Fiery Pegasus get away just a bit too far. They thought she was doing too much, but when you have Richard Fourie aboard a pacemaker you can’t assume the horse is going to come back that easily.”
Tarry won the Gr 2 SA Nursery on Saturday with the Gimmethegreenlight filly Green Diamond and in the Gr 2 SA Fillies Nursery he was runner up with One Fine Winter (What A Winter).
He said both of those would be targeted at the Hollywoodbets Scottsville festival Of Speed meeting, although whether they took part in the Gr 1 Allan Robertson Championship (for fillies) or the Gr 1 Gold Medallion remained to be seen.
Tarry has won 20 Gr 1s at Hollywoodbets Scottsville, which makes him the most successful trainer in the course’s history.
One of his wins last year was with Lucky Lad in the Gr 1 Golden Horse Sprint, which has now been changed to a Gr 2 with a benchmark. The benchmark is 52kg = a nett 106 merit rating.
Lucky Lad will thus have to carry 61kg off his current 124 merit rating, but he will be there.
Tarry said about Lucky Lad’s 1,90 length fifth in the Gr 1 TAB Computaform Sprint over 1000m on Champions Day at Turffontein, “The 1000m is just a touch quick for him. I thought that his preparation was a little bit impeded by all the rain. Obviously, we say we’re all in the same boat, but his weight (body weight) picked up significantly, and I battled to get him in at an acceptable weight. So he was maybe just needing it and had the wrong draw over the too sharp 1000m, so those three things weren’t in his favour and he only got beaten 1,90 lengths, I thought it was a smashing run.”
Winter Greeting is another one who was a bit heavy in body before her last run and then was a bit above herself and too handy. The SA Fillies Sprint is a target for her and Tarry said, “She’s still got a way to go to get fit, but at least she’s had a run under the belt and we’ve still got time.”
Another one who might be at Hollywoodbets Scottsville is the new acquisition to the yard, Rascova, the Gr 1 Maine Chance Farms Majorca Stakes winner and arch rival to Double Grandslam. Tarry said, “She had a temperature a few weeks before the Empress Club and missed some work so it would not have been right to run her. I will keep the SA Fillies Sprint as a consideration, we will see how things progress, but obviously her best form is around the turn and the Garden Province is an obvious target.”
Cosmic Speed went close in the Gr 1 Gold Medallion last year, but Tarry said it would be pointless taking this Gr 1 Wilgerbosdrift HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes winner to Hollywoodbets Scottsville when there was the Gr 2 IOS Drill Hall Stakes and Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge as obvious targets.
He was not sure of the next step for Gr 3 Umzimkhulu Stakes winner Green Sapphire and was not getting ahead of himself with her, commenting that with a 104 merit rating she bad a long way to go to reach the level of the like of Fatal Flaw.
Some good news is that Cousin Casey is back in training and is on track for the July. He loves Hollywoodbets Greyville and finished second in last year’s July.
Litigation and Future Pearl are other July possibilities.
