Sean Tarry edged ahead of Dennis Drier as probably the most prolific Hollywoodbets Scottsville Grade 1 winner of all time on Sunday when Under Your Spell won the Grade 1 Allan Robertson Championship under Calvin Habib and buoyed by this achievement he landed a four-timer at the Vaal Classic track yesterday, all of them ridden by National champion jockey elect Lyle Hewitson.

Tarry has now won 13 Grade 1s at Hollywoodbets Scottsville, one more than Drier and three clear of another current trainer Vaughan Marshall.

Tarry's baker's dozen includes seven SA Fillies Sprints - National Colour (2006), Ethereal Lady (2007), Captain's Gal (2010), Carry On Alice (2015 and 2017) and Celtic Sea (2019 and 2020);
Three Golden Horse Sprints - Bull Valley (2017), Chimichuri Run (2019) and Warrior's Rest (2020);
Two Allan Robertson Championships - Give Me Five (2009) and Under Your Spell;
And one Golden Horse Medallion - Eden Roc (2019).

Drier's dozen consists of Gold Medallions - Spook And Diesel (1990), Link Man (2010), Potent Power (2012), Captain Of All (2013), Guiness (2014), Seventh Plain (2015), Sand And Sea (2017) and Tempting Fate (2020);
Three SA Fillies Sprints - Sound Of Rhum (1994), Val De Ra (2011) and Sommerlied (2018);
And one Golden Horse Sprint - Captain Of All (2015).

This pair are probably the leading Grade 1 winners at the track but will take some time to verify as easy to refer to lists of Grade 1 winners and their connections are not well kept in SA.

Under Your Spell's win gave Calvin Habib his first Grade 1 win and came two races before Ryan Munger scored his first Grade 1 win with the Corne Spies-trained Singforafa in the SA Fillies Sprint.

Yesterday, at an eight race meeting, Tarry and Hewitson won the first three races on the card with Willow's Wish (100/33), Kissing Booth (5/9) and Immeasurable (13/18) and they later won the sixth race with the promising Full Velocity (25/11).

Tarry, who won his fifth SA Trainers' Championship last season, is currently in third place on the national log behind Justin Snaith and Paul Peter. He is about R3.3 million adrift of the former so is unlikely to land a sixth title this season.

Lyle Hewitson is already home and hosed in the National Jockeys' Championship, having ridden 233 winners, 77 clear of reigning National Champion Jockey Warren Kennedy. It will be the 23-year-old's third title. His first in 2017/2018 was won while he was still an apprentice and his second in 2018/2019 was won in the season that he attained his fully fledged jockey's license.

David Thiselton
Gold Circle