Chimichuri’s star rises

Chimichuri Run announced himself as the new season’s first exciting classic prospect with a riveting win against older runners in the Grade 3 Spring Spree Stakes over 1200m at Turffontein on Saturday, winning by 4.25 lengths.

From his racetrack behaviour, Chimichuri Run is already a professional. He settles and quickens like an experienced runner and wins stylishly, unextended.

With heaps of talent added to his sensibility, he has all the makings of a Grade 1 Cape Guineas prospect and trainer Sean Tarry confirmed the stable had earmarked a Cape campaign for him.

Tarry said: “His next run will be the Joburg Spring Challenge (Grade 2, 1450m, inside track, 6 October). He has such an amount of speed we’d like to see how he goes there. There is the Dingaans to consider and the Cape Guineas, but the aim will be the CTS R5-million races on 2019 Sun Met Day at Kenilworth, the mile or the sprint.”

Tarry had felt some pressure going into the race and said: “We brought him up from Durban last week ahead of the race but then it got delayed for a week. I didn’t know whether I should scratch him or not. It’s been a while but I really felt the pressure and am obviously relieved that he won,” said Tarry.