Mike De Kock and Sean Tarry
The race for the SA champion trainer title for the 2012/13 season has illustrated the shift in the balance of power at the top of the tree. The forthright wisdom and outstanding achievement of Mike De Kock versus the diplomacy and ambition of the challenger Sean Tarry, has dominated the fascinating tussle. And dare we overlook the youthful energy and professionalism of the record breaking Justin Snaith?
Contrary to popular expectation, Super Saturday extraordinarily produced a blank slate for all of the three wise men with a few minor places making no real difference at all to their respective positions.
Despite the De Kock and Tarry headbanging session at the top for the national title, the Cape based Snaith has been the serious newsmaker this season, even though he is resigned to finishing third on the national log. Snaith, who will take over from Joey Ramsden as Cape Champion in a few days, broke a longstanding SA record when clocking his 175th winner after a hat trick at Kenilworth on 3 July.
The previous record of 174 winners was held by Geoff Woodruff. Woodruff’s father in law Terrance Millard held the original record of 141 winners in a single season. SA Champion Mike De Kock is on the 163 mark, while Tarry is on 121, with one meeting left.
Speaking to the Sporting Post on the occasion of his fine hat trick earlier this month, Snaith said that he was aiming for 185 winners by the end of this season. But for once he got it wrong and goes into the Kenilworth meeting on Tuesday, as we go to print, on the 196 mark, with a serious chance to achieve a remarkable double century of winners.
The race for the champion trainer boils down to a straight shootout between De Kock and Tarry at the very last meeting of the 2012/13 season on Wednesday at Scottsville. Going into the meeting De Kock still held a lead of R297 662 over Tarry. De Kock has only three runners, while Tarry has eight.
The average winning cheque at the Scottsville meeting is in the region of R44 000. With that shortfall to make up, by our calculations Tarry would have to win six races and run a few places to catch the champion. The tight clash is reminiscent of the 2007/8 championship duel, when De Kock eventually beat Charles Laird by just R100 000 at the last meeting. Based on the budgets and the figures, De Kock must be the popular choice to lift the title for an outstanding eighth consecutive year.
