Robyn Louw
The Vaal meeting on Tuesday, 2 May 2023 not only saw Sean Tarry saddling an eye-catching double on the card, but the second winner of the day was particularly significant for marking his 2,500th career milestone.
There hasn't been much in the way of fuss, firstly because Sean is characteristically modest about these things, but mostly because the achievement managed to sneak up on him too!
Sean started his career in racing in 1994, first as an assistant to his brother in law, Damon Rahme, later moving on to June Casey and Greg Anthony. He took the plunge and struck out on his own in May 1997 and saddled a winner at his very first meeting with the homebred Supreme Magic getting him off the mark at Turffontein. Sorevof provided his first feature win in the 1997 John Breval Memorial at Newmarket and Sean was on his way.
Having handled the entire spectrum from the likes of sprint sensations National Colour and Carry On Alice, champion miler Legal Eagle all the way through to the likes of the Gold Cup winning Aslan - collecting all South Africa's 'majors' along the way - it is fitting that Sean's milestone came courtesy of another interesting horse, Celestial City.
Bred by Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein, Celestial City is a full-brother to former Equus Champion, and now Wilgerbosdrift-based sire Hawwaam, and half-brother to Horse Of The Year Rainbow Bridge and dual G1 winner Golden Ducat. In addition to his royal connections, when offered as Lot 185 at the 2020 National Yearling Sales, the colt was knocked down to new Summerhill proprietor Henning Pretorius for R7 million. However, he remained unraced until Sean received a call in early 2022 asking whether he might like the job.
Sean admits to being reluctant. "He had an interesting story and obviously he was very expensive, but he was standing at Henning's farm as an unraced 3yo. It's not the time you want the call up," he says wryly, but admits it has been a nice project. "He made a winning debut, which was great. Henning would like to stand the horse at stud, so obviously he hopes to win feature races, but we do have to crawl before we sprint," he cautions. Either way, the colt currently has 3 wins and 3 seconds from 7 starts.
Asked how he feels about achieving the 2500 mark, he replies, "I don't really know. Mike de Kock has had 3000 and I'm sure Justin Snaith must be close, but we've got such a poor visibility of what's been achieved in the past, it's hard to know what a good number is. But sure, it's a round figure," he concedes. "To be honest, I don't know what it means, but what it equates to is that I've averaged 100 winners a season since I've been training, which is what is significant to me."
Those 100's all add up. Sean currently has 2,504 winners to his credit, nearly 300 stakes winners and 65 Gr1 winners. His honour roll boasts 32 Equus Awards, a Triple Tiara winner and five National Trainer titles to date and he currently occupies second place on the national log. Most encouragingly, despite the difficulties racing has been facing, he remains as focused and determined as ever.
"It really has been challenging over the last few years," he admits, "but it's coming together again. We're half the size we once were, but we've got some good clients that are building with us and we are gaining momentum and getting strong again."
All the more reason to celebrate.
Congratulations, Sean !