After taking a bump from an opponent at the start, the favourite Esteemed was always playing catch-up and didn’t have any answers for the Sean Tarry trained filly Green Diamond, who shed her maiden to grab top honours in the R500 000 TAB Gr2 SA Nursery at Turffontein on Saturday.
Green Diamond (Craig Zackey) sheds her maiden while the favourite Esteemed (Richard Fourie) plays catch-up (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
A runner-up on debut behind Glastonbury in the Listed Ruffian Stakes, Green Diamond (8-1) was easy to back and showed her talent with a gutsy victory under Craig Zackey to beat the 9-10 favourite Esteemed by 2 lengths in a time of 68,16 secs for the 1160m.
Esteemed recovered well after he took a bump at the start from Tina Lovelace, who had been side-swiped by King Harald, who could do no better than fourth.
Craig Zackey said he had been ’blown away’ by the winner’s work in the build-up.
Sean Tarry is a master of the big days and said he was pleased to get a filly of this quality from Drakenstein. He indicated that he was also happy to be on the board early, rather than later.
Raced and bred by Drakenstein Stud, the winner is a daughter of Gimmethegreenlight (More Than Ready) out of the three-time winner Trippi mare Lesedi La Rona.
Now a winner from 2 starts, with a stakes second place, Green Diamond took her stakes earnings to R352 500 and looks another Allan Robertson Championship candidate on this showing.
