Met on the roll for Legal Eagle
NATIONAL champion trainer Sean Tarry (pictured) sent Carry On Alice to Cape Town this week, but his top class male sprinter Trip To Heaven will campaign in Johannesburg and the highest rated horse in the country Legal Eagle will likely have a preparation in Johannesburg before being sent down for the J&B Met.
Carry On Alice will be joined by Liege, who runs in next week’s R2,5 million Lanzerac Ready To Run Stakes over 1400m at Kenilworth. Last year’s J&B Met runner-up, the eight-year-old Gold Onyx, will also be heading to Cape Town, having thrived there last season.
Zambezi River is down there and ran a good third in the Gr 2 Cape Merchants over 1200m on Saturday.
Liege, a Dynasty colt who finished second in the Gr 3 Graham Beck Stakes behind Muwaary, might also go for the Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas on December 19. He was in joint 15th on the latest CTS Million Dollar log.
Swift Sarah
Tarry is planning to send more horses for the latter 1400m event, which takes place on January 23, although Swift Sarah (joint 9th) and Old Em (joint 19th) are the only others he currently has on the log.
The Captain Al four-year-old filly Carry On Alice made her seasonal reappearance on Saturday at Turffontein and was touched off a head by the new kid on the block, the Dominic Zaki-trained Little Genie, in the Listed Gardenia Stakes over 1000m.
Little Genie, who is by Judpot, is the same age as Carry On Alice but has only had seven starts and has won the last five. She was receiving 1,5kg from 115 merit-rated Carry On Alice on Saturday and the pair may clash in the Gr 2 Southern Cross Stakes over 1000m at Kenilworth on December 5 as Zaki is considering raiding for that race.
Carry On Alice finished a fine third in the Gr 1 Betting World Cape Flying Championships over 1000m last season, despite having had to stand for ages in the starting stalls, and that race, which will now be run on J&B Met day for the first time, will be her main aim again. There is an excellent programme of sprint races for fillies during the Cape Summer Of Champions Season, including the Southern Cross, and she will likely take in a couple of those races too.
The 115 merit-rated Trip To Heaven was unlucky to be beaten by Brutal Force last time out in a Pinnacle Stakes event over 1160m at Turffontein, as he lost ground at the start and Tarry reckoned S’Manga Khumalo “panicked”.
Trip To Heaven
Tarry hoped the starter would have taken notice of Trip To Heaven’s tendency to miss the break when asked to stand in the stalls for too long. He will likely defend his crown in the Gr 2 Merchants over 1160m on Sansui Summer Cup day, November 28, before being put away for a Johannesburg Autumn campaign.
Legal Eagle’s “blue print” plan remains the J&B Met, although he will be prepared in Johannesburg.
Tarry added an African Horse Sickness outbreak such as the one which occurred last year had the potential to affect his and other horses’ Cape Town programmes.
Legal Eagle’s top class contemporary French Navy is still on track for the Summer Cup and Tarry was “very happy” with his Peermont Emperor’s Palace Charity Mile run in which he carried top weight and ran on powerfully from way back in the running to finish an eyecatching 3,9 length sixth.
Meanwhile, Tarry’s KZN yard had a treble on the Greyville poly on Sunday and are now one off the pace in the race for the KZN Championships behind the KZN Champion yard of Dennis Drier, while another former KZN Champion Duncan Howells is one winner behind Tarry.
Tarry was not even thinking of the KZN title at this early stage but was full of praise for the “fantastic” job being done by his Summerveld assistant Dishone Steyn who has been at Summerveld for a year and knows the tracks well as he always has the yard’s charges in tip-top condition as was the case on Sunday when all of Arabian National, Strategic Move and Chennai Babe won to add to the Friday night poly victory of Jade Vine and last Tuesday’s poly win with In Other Words.
Tarry looks likely to make a bid to wrest the KZN title, as he is carefully selecting horses from his Johannesburg string who look likely to be suited to the Greyville poly.
He will not just be sending the sand horses “lockstock-and-barrel” down to KZN as he pointed out that while the now defunct Vaal Sand track tended to suit galloping types, the Greyville poly requires horses who can quicken.
The four-year-old Kahal filly Chennai Babe is one who has been a revelation on the poly, having arrived in KZN as a merit-rated 51 one-time winner and then reeling off four wins and two places in her six poly starts to date.
Arabian National, a five-year-old National Emblem gelding who has pace and the ability to kick again, looks suited to the surface and his three 1000m Greyville poly starts to date have yielded two wins and a third when missing the break.