Smart Girl! Piere Strydom keeps For The Lads going to beat Virgo’s Babe
Piere Strydom and Sean Tarry teamed up to win the R150 000 Listed Ruffian Stakes run over 1000m at Turffontein on Saturday. Trippi’s daughter For The Lads looks promising and won a gutsy race from the longshot, Virgo’s Babe.
The winner carried the familiar blue and red silks of well known owner Chris Van Niekerk, and we could hear plenty about her in the future.
The pacy debutante Crown Bearer showed terrific toe for a daughter of Dynasty and she led the charge for the first 700m with Winter Passion and For The Lads in close attendance.
Into the final 400m, Virgo’s Babe looked like she could cause the upset at 40 to 1, as she continued to stay on strongly down the inside as Piere Strydom produced For The Lads down the outside.
In a drive to the wire, For The Lads stayed on to win by a head in a time of 58,27 secs. She started a 3 to 1 favourite and beat David Nieuwenhuizen’s Virgo’s Babe, who will start favourite in her maiden next time!
Crown Bearer stayed on well for third right on top of the first two in an excellent debut.
Winter Passion, another having her first run, ran a 1,25 length fourth.
The biggest disappointment of the race was Judpot’s debut winner Lady Morgana, who returned after a short rest to run stone last and 18 lengths behind. We will review the stipes report to see if anything went wrong there.
Winning jockey Piere Strydom laughed when questioned in the post race interview about running so handy: “ Maybe I misunderstood Sean (Tarry) when he said don’t bustle her. It is a 1000m race and there is no time to drop out. She was up there most of the way and she really fought on nicely. I think she is still a bit leggy and can only still improve.”
Sean Tarry trained the winner’s mother and said that he thought the 1000m would be a bit sharp: “ I know Piere (Strydom) doesn’t like to be behind runners on the youngsters, but she was more close to the action than I expected. It was a good win,” he said.
For The Lads was bred by Klawervlei Stud and is by Trippi out of the Winter Romance mare, Skin Tight. The dam was trained by Tarry and won 6 races from 1400m to 2400m.
For The Lads cost R300 000 on the Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 1. She has earned R273 750 from her two starts of 1 win and 1 place.
She looks like she will stay on over time and could yet turn into a very smart filly.
