The swansong victory of Carry On Alice in the Grade 1 SA Fillies Sprint at Scottsville on Saturday was accompanied by rare emotion from her normally phlegmatic trainer Sean Tarry and the win was significant for more than one reason.

The five-year-old Captain Al mare was a member of what is regarded as probably the greatest crop of fillies in South African history. She was the first among them to win a Grade 1 and currently is the last, although one of her best contemporaries, Smart Call, is still campaigning overseas.  On Saturday she joined another of her contemporaries, Inara, as a five-time Grade 1 winner.

Carry On Alice won one Grade 1 in each of her first three seasons and in her final season has won two. Although all five of those wins were in sprint events, she showed her class as a two-year-old when going down by a short-head in the Gr 1 Thekwini over 1600m, despite jumping from a wide draw at Greyville.

She and four of her contemporaries won seven Grade 1 races between them in open company as three-year-olds. Inara and Alboran Sea achieved the feat twice, and Carry On Alice, Majmu and Same Jurisdiction each did it once, Furthermore, both of Alboran Seas Gr 1 victories that season were in weight for age sprints against the boys. Carry On Alice had also beaten the boys in the SA Nursery as a two-year-old and failed by only 0,25 lengths to repeat the feat in the Gold Medallion. The crop have gone on to win another nine Grade 1s between them. That makes a total of 24 Grade 1 wins for the crop to date, as they also contested eight age restricted Grade 1s. Those 24 Grade 1s have been won by nine individuals, namely Carry On Alice (five), Inara (five), Alboran Sea (three), Smart Call (three), Same Jurisdiction (two), Majmu (two), Bilateral (one), Siren’s Call (one), Pine Princess (one) and Real Princess (one).

Amazingly, Carry On Alice is yet to win an Equus award having been ousted by three exceptional members of her crop, Majmu, Alboran Sea and Smart Call, in respective champion age group awards, and by Captain Of All and Talktothestars, both merit rated above 120, in respective Champion Sprinter awards. However, this year she looks likely to walk away with two Equus awards as Champion Sprinter and Champion Older Female.

Carry On Alice has a fairytale story behind her and two of her owners, UK couple Dr John and Jill Warner, have become staunch fans of South African racing as a result.

It was only through the tender care of the Klawervlei Stud staff that Carry On Alice was ever conceived at all.

Klawervlei part-owner John Koster, speaking of her mother Carry On Katie a couple of years ago, said, “She used to throw these monster foals and maybe her canals were just too narrow. When she gave birth to her first foal she injured her pelvis and couldn’t get back up for a day or two. We nursed her back to health and the following year she conceived Carry On Alice.”

Carry On Alice was successfully born, but the following year Carry On Katie had complications when foaling down. Unfortunately, despite around the clock care, both her and her foal did not survive the ordeal on this occasion.

However, as consolation, Carry On Alice will be able to continue her legacy.

The Warners were two of forty people who had booked for a racing tour of South Africa in early 2013, which had included in its itinerary a trip to Klawervlei Stud. When the Met was moved to a later date that season, the Warners were two of only four people who did not cancel their tour tickets. On the trip to Klawervlei, Jill Warner asked Koster about a filly which had caught her eye in the catalogue for the pending CTS Premier Yearling Sale. The filly was of course Carry On Alice. The Warners became part-owners of the filly a few days later along with Tarry’s chief owner Chris van Niekerk. Klawervlei Stud also kept a share. The Warners could never have dreamed Carry On Alice would give them such a wonderful ride and she has also made them a myriad new friends.

On Saturday Carry On Alice proved she is better without cover as this allows her to use her high cruising speed to maximum effect. She crept up to join the leader before Khumalo pressed the button at the 400m mark. That famous kick propelled her to the front and her big heart enabled her to stave off the challenges of Grade 1 winners Just Sensual and The Secret Is Out to win by a length. She also won this race two years ago as a three-year-old. Her other Grade 1 wins were all against the boys, in the Gr 1 SA Nursery (2014), the weight for age (wfa) Gr 1 Computaform Sprint (2016) and the wfa Betting World Cape Flying Championships (2017).

She can arguably be regarded as the greatest sprinting female South Africa has produced his decade as her Grade 1 count is higher than the like of Val De Ra and Via Africa. However, National Colour will still have pride of place as the best Tarry has ever trained. One can only hope Carry On Alice will be as good a broodmare as National Colour, who already has two Gr 1-winning progeny, and she will be given every opportunity to be so as she will be heading overseas to be covered by the best stallions.

Carry On Alice will be sorely missed by the racing public, who could always rely on her to give of her best. He career record ends at eleven wins, eight seconds and five thirds from 29 starts and she only failed to earn a cheque on three occasion and all of those were in races beyond sprints. She earned R4 591 250 in stakes.

By David Thiselton