Very Noose! The Hangman (Piere Strydom) goes clear to win the Gr2 The Dingaans at Turffontein on Saturday with ease
Trainer Sean Tarry and owner Chris Van Niekerk seem to find a really good horse every season. The Hangman is their latest bright star and the son of Jallad booked his Cape Guineas berth with a resounding victory in Saturday’s R500 000 Gr2 The Dingaans at Turffontein. He is now set to take on the Cape’s two glamour boys on 22 December at Kenilworth.
Sunday’s Selangor Cup spellbinder exposed some of the might of the better 3yo strength and a propective showdown between King Of Pain, Capetown Noir and The Hangman will have the elitist juices flowing.
And they are not the only three either!
The Dingaans is a race that has produced some really outstanding horses over the years and The Hangman looks at this stage, to be right up there amongst the best of them.
Saturday’s field was a fairly troublesome one, with De Kock’s Desert Sheik the chief culprit. But starting a well-supported 15-20 favourite and a popular exotic banker, The Hangman was never flustered as he broke keenly before being eased back as his stablemate The King And I went off into a healthy lead.
Danesco followed from his rails draw, with Here Comes Billy and Sabadell further back.
Going for home The King And I continued to gallop as The Hangman crept closer, with Sabadell starting his run.
But it was all over in a matter of strides as The Hangman lengthened smartly and quickened away.
He beat the 50-1 shot Sabadell by 2 lengths in a time of 9,33 secs.
The runner-up ran a top race from his 15 draw and continued on nicely from his fourth in the Graham Beck Stakes at the beginning of last month.
Another Woodruff runner in Killua Castle finished third, while De Kock’s Emerald Approach ran into fourth.
Winning jockey Piere Strydom, who rode his usual top-class professional race, suggested that The Hangman would go further in time and said that he rated him highly. Strydom’s comments about the apparent superiority of a Johannesburg-based racing publication were interesting too!
An elated trainer Sean Tarry is obviously impressed with The Hangman:
“ He is such a workmanlike who gives nothing away and goes about his business so professionally. He is getting stronger and improving all the time and I have high hopes for him,” he said.
Yet another Highlands Farms-bred winner on the day, The Hangman is a gelded son of Jallad out of the four-time winning American mare Helleborous Blue(by Cee’s Tizzy).
A R450 000 Cape Premier Yearling Sale graduate, The Hangman has now won 4 races with 4 places from 10 starts for stake earnings of R809 675.
One hopes that Tarry and Van Niekerk will be enticed by the Cape Guineas prize.
Whether The Hangman is good enough to take on and beat the likes of Capetown Noir and King Of Pain in their own backyard is a debate for another day.
