Tarry set for a pearl of a day

Other than the marvelous racing on offer, there are a few side items that could well be decided at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Sunday.

Let us start with the quality of the racing. Every event on the 10-race card is a feature, starting with four Grade 1 races, three Grade 2s, a Grade 3 and two Listed events.

The side items start off with Hong Kong World Pool covering the entire racecard, enabling punters to bet into massive fields. Then we have two huge carryovers R2 million to the Pick 6 which is likely to produce a pool of R15 million, and then R2 million to the Quartet on Race 7 the Grade 3 World Pool Gold Cup over 3200m with the pool likely to climb to R5 million.

The final side item is the scrap for the Champion Trainer’s title.

There is no question the advantage lies quite strongly with incumbent Justin Snaith, who at the time of writing holds a lead of R1,538,937 over Sean Tarry. But Tarry has some top-class horses this season and he has many of them in action on Sunday and there is a load of money to be made.

The Grade 1 HKJC Champions Cup over 1800m carries a stake of R1.5 million, while the other three Grade 1s – The Mercury Sprint over 1200m, the World Pool Moment Of The Day Champions Stakes and the Douglas Whyte Stakes – each carry prize money of R1 million, as does the World Pool Gold Cup.

Tarry has the firepower, particularly in the Mercury Sprint, the Champions Stakes and Gold Cup, where his runners top the betting and in two cases have excellent back-up.

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In the Gold Cup he sends out four-year-old gelding Future Pearl and seven-year-old gelding Nebraas. There is little doubt in my mind that Future Pearl is the best stayer in the country and comes into this race as the defending champion.

Yes, he did go off the boil after last year’s win but he demonstrated with a painless victory in the Grade 3 Derby over 2400m and again in the Hollywoodbets Durban July, that he had regained the flair that saw him complete the Gold Vase and Gold Cup double last year.

The son of Futura is still young enough to exhibit further improvement and he could well be even better than last year. And with Richard Fourie back in the irons he looks the standout bet on a competitive card.

Nebraas demonstrated with his third place in the Gold Vase over 3000m that there is life in the old boy still and he is better off at the weights with both winner Madison Valley and runner-up Shoot The Rapids. Gavin Lerena is back aboard Nebraas.

Lucky Lad represents Tarry in the Mercury Sprint and while he doesn’t have an inspiring record at Greyville, this is his first run over 1200m at the course. He tends to come from well back these days so his wide draw may not prove too damaging with Fourie up.

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Tarry may have lost Proceed in the Champion Stakes but he still has the top two in the betting with Cosmic Speed and Legend Of Arthur. The former won the Grade 2 Golden Horseshoe over 1400m on Durban July day while Fourie has taken the ride on Legend Of Arthur.

The Champion Cup heads up the card and Tarry has Durban July runner-up Cousin Casey in the field. He could very well give Tarry a second successive victory in this event after winning it last year with Princess Calla. However, based on the weight turnarounds from the Durban July, they all have See It Again to beat.

Michael Roberts’ charge finished fifth in that race because Piere Strydom had to ease him in the closing stages, and he only went down 1.80 lengths. This race is at weight for age and as he may have gone into the Durban July slightly underdone as he only had one prep run, this could well be his race.