It takes a good horse to turn an ordinary day on its head and SA champion trainer Sean Tarry got what he was looking for when saddling the progressive Big Bear to a scintillating win in Saturday’s R2,5 million CTS Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup at Turffontein.
S’manga Khumalo salutes on Big Bear (Pic – JC Photos)
With his senior colleague Mike de Kock playing a dominant role in the first four races, Tarry was obliged to take something of a back seat but came back strongly to collect the cheque everybody wanted on the afternoon.
The well established Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup has proven a winner over the years and the 2017 renewal looked to be a particularly strong one – with 16 CTS Ready To Run graduates, that included a Gr1 winner and two Gr2 winners, going to post.
Sean Tarry – banked the big cheque
The Tarry pair of recent impressive Gr2 winner Wonderwall and the imposing Big Bear were always at the head of affairs, but sensibly didn’t cut throats as Lyle Hewitson and S’manga Khumalo paced it out ahead of Onamission and Tammany Hall.
Into the home straight, Khumalo gave Big Bear more rein and he floated past his stablemate, with the classy Gr1 winner Brave Mary catching her breath and unleashing a challenge.
At the 200m, Brave Mary changed legs smartly and chased the leader, but Khumalo had timed his effort well and Big Bear surged away to win readily in a time of 84,08 secs.
Another filly in the Mike de Kock-trained Takingthepeace got going well late in the race to shade Wonderwall for third.
Stakes were paid all the way down to tenth finisher, who was the Gavin Van Zyl trained Vicomte, who banked R30 000 for his efforts.
Khumalo was over the moon.
S’manga Khumalo – good pick of a ride!
“I picked the right one – he is a wonderful horse to work with. He went down beautifully and came back even better,” he said.
Sean Tarry was the man who coined the concept that there was only one way to fix an ordinary day -‘with a good horse’ – and he was particularly happy to have banked the big cheque for his major owner, Chris van Niekerk.
Bruce Gardner, who with Gary Alexander, was the underbidder on Big Bear, is Chris van Niekerk’s partner in the winner.
A R240 000 Johannesburg Ready To Run Sale graduate, the Summerhill bred Big Bear is a son of the deceased Await The Dawn (Giant’s Causeway) out of the non-winning Gamalakhe (Northern Guest).
The son of Giant’s Causeway won on his debut at two for Aidan O’Brien before finishing down the field in the Champagne Stakes. Await The Dawn was unbeaten in two starts at three, including a victory in the Group 3 Kilternan Stakes. He excelled at four, landing the Huxley Stakes at Chester before scoring in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Await The Dawn raced as a six-year-old for Mike de Kock, winning one of his four starts. He died in his second season at Summerhill and has produced a steady flow of winners this season.
Big Bear has won 3 of his 4 starts with 1 place and stakes of R1 447 000.
