Tarry stable still on fire

There were some high and low points during this weekend’s racing but fortunately for mospeople the peaks overshadowed the valleys.

As far as racing at Turffontein was concerned the good news was led by a treble feature-race win for trainer Sean Tarry who just keeps rolling along. His runners have earned R18.431 million in stake money so far this season and with second-placed Justin Snaith more than R4.8 million behind him, Tarry is well on track to win the Champion Trainer’s title for the third successive year. There were three Listed races, all over 1000m, on the card of which Tarry won two, the Storm Bird Stakes for two year-olds with Barrack Street, and the Bauhinia Handicap for fillies and mares with Exquisite Touch. Both turned out to be relatively comfortable rides for S’manga Khumalo.

He also won the Egoli Mile (Non- Black Type) with Bold Viking. This was one of two hard-fought battles between two of the country’s upand- coming youngsters – Callan Murray and Lyle Hewitson.

Unfortunately for Murray, Saturday tuned out to be Hewitson’s day. They also went stride for stride in Race 9, Murray on 2-1 favourite for the Mike de Kock yard, and Hewitson on well-backed 5-2 second favourite Clever Guy for trainer Stephen Moffatt – the latter prevailing by a neck.

Tarry took Barrack Street to the Cape for the Summer Season so he had to have some inkling of fellow’s ability who is by Dynasty and a half-brother to Jay Peg. Barrack Street won on debut at Kenilworth and then ran in the R1-million Kuda Sprint (Non-Black Type) where he drifted in the betting but ended up running fifth – behind the runner he had beaten on debut, Bold Respect.

He went off at 5-2 for the Storm Bird Stakes with De Kock-trained Alfolk the marginal favourite at 22-10, but it was no contest as Barrack Street ran away to beat Alfolk by 3.50 lengths.

The biggest disappointment of the day was the failure of Kissable in the Listed Ruffian Stakes. This was always seen to be a two-horse race between Paul Matchett’s charge and Daring Diva from the Barend Botes yard. Kissable, so impressive in her first two starts, went off at 3-10 with Daring Diva at 7-1 but after showing her usual pace for half the 1000m journey it was clear something was wrong as jockey Randall Simons kept looking down.

He eventually stopped riding her and Kissable trailed in at the back of the field as Daring Diva burst away to beat Outlander by 2.75 lengths.

The stipes questioned Simons regarding his ride and this was the response as noted in the stipes report. “Simons explained to the Board that this filly had slipped coming out the stalls, recovered and had shown her usual speed; however at the 600m, when in front, he already felt that Kissable was not herself and was not travelling as well as she would have in her races. Even though Kissable managed to lead to the 300m, at this point she had tired badly and he felt something amiss with this and did not persevere with his ride.

He added that Kissable seemed to be blowing very heavily. In view of this performance, the Veterinary Surgeon was requested to examine Kissable. Trainer P Matchett was requested to report back to the Stipendiary Board on the condition of this filly on return to the stables.”

The course vet confirmed Simons’ comment. “Kissable blowing heavily post race; not striding out left front.” Ignore the run. Hopefully Kissable will be back.

*At Kenilworth it was Grant van Niekerk who shone on the day. The popular jockey rode in his first meeting since the Sun Met meet on 28 January as he had to sit out due to a series of suspensions. In that time he lost his job with the Bass-Robinson stable and picked up a new one with owner Sabine Plattner and trained Andre Nel.

He ended riding three winners on the day. He had two rides for his old yard and won on both of them, and one for his new yard and won on that. His victories for Bass-Robinson came in Race 2 Come on Sonny and Race 7 aboard Oh Behave, while his victory for Nel came aboard well-supported Sister Soozie in Race 5.