Tilbury Fort, trainer Tarry rule Gauteng Summer Cup in style

The G-Bets Gauteng Summer Cup at Turffontein Racecourse on Saturday belonged to trainer Sean Tarry as he grabbed six wins. Tarry’s Tilbury Fort, at 15/2, flashed home from off the pace to clinch the main race to make it five wins in seven, before maiden Zillzaal made it a round half dozen with an easy win in the ninth.

“I thought it would be tough today [Saturday], and would have been happy with two winners,” said Tarry. “Tilbury Fort likes racing fresh, so I wasn’t worried about it being his second outing after a rest.”

Fort Ember, last year’s Summer Cup runner-up, set a sedate gallop, followed by Cash Time, Dawn Assault, Arctica and Cascapedia. As expected it became something of a cavalry charge with 400m to go, with Cascapedia looking dangerous on the inside rail.

But as they entered the final 100m, Tilbury Fort unleashed a withering finish down the centre, and despite shifting to the inside under a left-handed drive from Lyle Hewitson, he swept on by to win in the final strides by just over half a length.

Dawn Assault ran the race of his life in staying on for second, while 3/1 favourite Cascapedia was beaten just over three quarters of a length into third. Top weight Coral Fever briefly looked dangerous wider out late on, but giving away 5.5kg and more to the entire field proved too much, and he was a far from a disgraced fourth. After his short head defeat in the Charity mile after a rest, Tilbury Fort had to be a big contender with a mere 52kg of Hewitson, but was still allowed to go off a generous 15/2.

– tabonline.co.za

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