Sean Tarry and the Drakenstein Stud look to have some serious juvenile fairer sex firepower ahead of the SA Champions Season, and registered a quick feature double at Turffontein on Saturday when recent SA Nursery winner Green Diamond registered her second consecutive feature strike in the R300 000 TAB Gr3 Protea Stakes.
Green Diamond (Craig Zackey) registers her second consecutive feature strike (Pic – JC Photos)
The astute former multiple champion trainer kept his two top fillies apart, and after One Fine Winter won the Pretty Polly a half hour earlier, it was stablemate Green Diamond (8-10) who spreadeagled her five mixed-sex opponents to win the Protea Stakes in fine style.
Green Diamond drew away from the 400m marker and they never saw her again, the winning margin of 6,50 lengths over maiden Vanakkam (20-1) bearing testimony to her superiority.
Hollywood Racing’s Kaalvoet (33-1) found this tougher after his eyecatching Vaal debut victory, and was a neck back in third.
The disappointment of the race was King Harald (9-4) who ran stone last and 12,75 lengths off the winner. He has to be better than that.
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 of 2 races with a place from her 3 starts (all features), Green Diamond took her stakes earnings to R550 000 and looks another Allan Robertson Championship candidate on this showing.
