TARRY’S SEASON JUST GETS BETTER
Tarry wins 2 of the 4 Grade 1s
A RECORD breaking season for trainer Sean Tarry got even better over the weekend as he picked up two Grade 1 races at Scottsville on Saturday. It was The Festival Of Speed and it was Bull Valley who won the Tsogo Sun Sprint and Carry On Alice won the South African Fillies Sprint both over 1200m. Jockey S’manga Khumalo was aboard both of the winners. Tarry had apparently decided awhile back that the mission for Bull Valley was the Tsogo Sun Sprint and it was a win full of merit as he fought off all challengers to win comfortably. Search Party raced just off the leading line but was doing his best work late but no match for the winner. Barbosa was always leading or just off them and fought on very gamely for third ahead of Gulf Storm. The disappointments of this race were Attenborough who was never really dangerous and stable companions Brutal Force and Table Bay. The tactics used on the fancied Janoobi were a bit strange. This Silvano colt had dropped in distance from his KZN Guineas win but Janoobi had basically sprinted for 1600m last time as his rider on that occasion Piere Strydom could not control his pulling. On Saturday it was quite the opposite as Janoobi who was drawn on the outside sat off the early pace but tracked right across to the middle of the course before switching right back to the outside. Hardly tactics that would win a Grade 1 race. Carry On Alice always travelled well and shot clear of her rivals 300m from home and never looked in any trouble after that to win very easily. Just Sensual and The Secret Is Out tried their best but could not reel in Carry On Alice. This was the fifth Grade 1 success. It seems she is now to be retired and we look forward to the careers of her foals. Trainer Paul Matchett knows how to train good two-year-olds and his filly Kissable started her career like a champion but has fizzled since. Stable companion Brave Mary on the other hand had started off her career in modest fashion being comfortably beaten in her first three starts. The Brave Tin Soldier filly, however, was a wide margin winner in her previous start and her connections decided to take a crack at the Allan Robertson Championship. Brave Mary did it the hard way when winning as she made nearly all the running and still had enough in hand to fight off the late challenge of Green Plains and Neptune’s Rain. The second placed Green Plains represented the Tarry-Khumalo combination. Jockey Anton Marcus seldom leaves a meeting without riding a winner and was aboard the winner of the Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion. Marcus rode the Twice Over colt Sand And Sea to victory. Sand And Sea came from well off the early pace to quicken up best and win comfortably from Varallo, Al Mariachi and Woljayrine. The favourite of this race Naafer was never given a clear run by his rider and this run is best ignored.