How the trainers are faring this racing season
When trainer Sean Tarry cooly collected four feature winners on Saturday, racing fans weren't particularly surprised.
The man from Randjesfontein always targets major meetings, with their lucrative races, and The Championships Finale at Turffontein – the climax of the Highveld autumn season in his backyard – was just the ticket.
As he collected trophy after trophy at the Big T, Tarry confirmed his big-day love affair: 'We always give it a go. We aim for the stars … if it comes off that's great … but we are never greedy.'
It took just over 30 minutes for the Tarry team to reach some of those stars, with both the TAB Pretty Polly Stakes and the TAB Protea Stakes in the bag (both Grade 3 races for juveniles). A couple of hours later, two Grade 2s had been added – the Camellia Stakes and the Colorado King Stakes – courtesy of fillies Mia Moo and Let's Go Now.
This is also the time of year when Tarry shifts gears, revving up the KwaZulu-Natal winter term, which climaxes South Africa's official season.
Indeed, in recent seasons the former champion trainer has put in flying finishes during May, June and July to almost overhaul prevailing top dog Justin Snaith on the prizemoney log that decides the championship.
This year we are unlikely to see another Tarry-Snaith cliffhanger as the latter already has a very commanding lead and carries awesome firepower in his KZN raiding party.
This week's arrival of the East Coast's three-month festival is a good time to reflect on the state of play among the country's top trainers.
Stakes money won
Cape Town-based Snaith, who dominated his hometown summer, already has R21.4-million in stakes money won.
Tarry's Saturday haul pushed his total up to R11.3-million – level with Eastern Cape supremo Alan Greeff, who annually runs up an impressive number early on before being swamped by the 'big guns' as the season rushes to its end.
In nominal fourth spot is the newly formed father-son combo of Brett and James Crawford, with their tally of R9.7-million being made up of Brett's winnings from when horses raced under his name alone, added to the aggregate they've achieved as an official unit.
Joburg's Tony Peter and Alec Laird are level-pegging on R8.9-million, just ahead of Cape Town's Candice Bass-Robinson on R8.5-million.
Another father-son team has a joint tally of R8.5-million: Mike and Mathew de Kock.
KZN has a pile of money waiting to be won in dozens of elite races, and upsets are always a factor as the great puzzle works itself out.
No one race will decide the final numbers, but it's interesting to glance at the list of trainers of the top 10 horses in the betting for the showpiece, the Hollywoodbets Durban July.
In order of favouritism, they are: Snaith, the Crawfords, Tarry, Laird, Joe Soma, Natie Kotzen, Snaith, the De Kocks, Michael Roberts and Lucky Houdalakis.
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