In a pre-race interview for the Gr1 HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes Sean Tarry chose his words like a crafty politician. “Obviously the race at the end of the month is the main aim …. so I’ve left some meat on the bone,” he cautioned gloomily, pausing after each word.  Anyone listening will have been left pondering the question; was an obviously under-done Legal Eagle good enough to win the unofficial second leg of the Gr1 WFA Championship, after the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate?

Tarry’s words were ringing in the ears coming through the 700 m mark as Gavin Lerena gambled on New Predator, bulleting past the pace-making Legal Eagle and pinching four lengths on the odds-on favourite.

But commentator Alistair Cohen had it nailed. “New Predator’s gone for broke a long way out,” he called.

The early pace was desperately slow and Anton Marcus confirmed. “It was never by design. I didn’t really want to lead,” and Tarry concurred. “There were two gallopers in the race and I couldn’t understand their tactics. But I’m not going to complain in the winner’s box.”

Marcus found himself in front for nothing and played the field on the brake but briefly his plan looked to have backfired as New Predator pounced off the false rail. Caught flat-footed for a few strides, Legal Eagle responded; he changed down a gear, got the revs up, and roared past a tiring New Predator with the odds on the gelding winning the Premiers Champion Challenge slashed from evens to odds-on in a matter of strides.

Last year’s winner Captain America was in the box seat all the way round but once Legal Eagle turned it on he was always chasing and did enough to collar a game new Predator on the line to take second.

Later Abashiri proved that he is everything he is touted to be as he nailed down the second leg of the Triple Crown with a bloodless victory in the Gr1 SA Classic. An injury after his Gauteng Guineas win was a well-kept secret by a trainer who wears his heart on his sleeve and no doubt Mike Azzie will have found himself biting his tongue as the media questions were put.

“I’m not the old brash Michael Azzie,” he said but he will still have been under tremendous pressure, inside the yard and out, after an injury scare put Abashiri’s participation in the Classic and the Triple Crown in doubt.

“He had eight days of box rest,” admitted Azzie after an early morning call from his son and assistant saying, “We have a problem.” Not quite the same magnitude as Apollo 13 but for a trainer the words will have triggered a cold sweat. “But he was a fit horse before the injury,” reasoned Azzie, “and a horse does not lose its fitness in eight days.”

Karl Zechner, savouring his first Gr1 victory, was lavish in his praise for his mount. “It was an ordinary race to him and he made it look like an ordinary race.”

Injury scare or not, Abashiri was ridden with supreme confidence by Zechner, the son of Go Deputy scything through the opposition down the Turffontein straight. Midfield in the opening exchanges, shadowed by Marcus and Brazuca, Zechner hunted a clear passage up the straight and confidently punched through a yawning gap. Marcus knew quickly that he was in trouble. Zechner had a hard hold while his whip was flapping and it was just a matter of who would run second.

Given the manner of victory the SA Derby and the Triple Crown are at his mercy and owners Adriaan and Rika van Vuuren can invite a few more orange-clad guests to the party for Derby Day come the end of the month.

It was a tough day at the office for Johan Janse van Vuuren who had third, second and second in the three Gr1’s.

Stanley Ferreira is a man of few words, none in fact after Juxtapose caused a major upset in the Gr1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic, second leg of the Wilgerbosdrift Triple Tiara. Ferreira has eight stables booked at Ashburton for South Africa’s Champion Season and Juxtaposed booked her box and a crack at the Gr1 Woolavington 2000 with a grinding win over favourite Negroamaro with first leg winner Heaps of Fun back in the pack.

The last furlong was a lung-bursting grind to the wire as Negroamaro, Juxtapose and She’s A Dragon fought their way clear of the pack but treading treacle. The trio were dead on their feet crossing the line but Chase Maujean got his filly’s head down when it counted for his first career Gr1 success.

Tarry is in lethal form at present and kicked off the meeting winning the first three races with the promising juvenile filly Cloth Of Cloud showing solid credentials for the SA Fillies Nursery later in the month. She ground the Gr3 Pretty Polly Stakes field into the turf in spite of racing green and almost sending S’Manga Khumalo over her neck and into the Turffontein landfill as she dug her toes on the line and Bull Valley making a winning debut for the stable in the Gr3 Man ‘O War Sprint.

Tarry and Khumalo signed off a red letter day with Captain’s Causeway in the last.

– Andrew Harrison
Picture: Abashiri (SportingPost)