The team of trainer Sean Tarry and jockey Calvin Habib are back together at Turffontein on Saturday with Celtic Rumours in Race 8, a MR 92 Handicap for fillies and mares over 1400m on the Standside track.
The combination were on a winning streak for quite a while but came to an end when Habib was offered an opportunity to ride in Singapore. Unfortunately, owing to a paucity of riding opportunities Habib decided to return to South Africa but while he has picked up some rides from the stable, the constant flow of mounts he had before leaving the country is not there at the moment.
However, Tarry has only one runner in action at Turffontein and this ride has gone to Habib, who has ridden this daughter of Vercingetorix in all but one of her runs.
Celtic Rumours is clearly talented and has yet to run out of the places in her six starts. She started with a fourth place behind Melech, who is highly regarded by the Roy Magner yard, and after a close-up third in her second outing, notched up the first of two wins.
The first of those was over 1450m at the Vaal Classic track while the second, on 22 February, was over the course and distance of Saturday’s race. The latter of the two was quite remarkable in that she jumped awkwardly when leaving the starting stalls and also suffered a recurrent brush wound left hind.
That was the only time Habib did not ride the filly but Gavin Lerena proved an excellent substitute.
Tarry gave her a break after that and she returned to racing last month in a MR 90 Handicap for fillies and mares over 1200m on the Inside track at Turffontein with Habib back in the irons.
She clearly was in need of the outing and also found 1200m a touch sharp as she sat off the pace and then produced a potent finish to end up a 1.50-length third behind Big Eyed Girl.
Back to 1400m on the Standside track with it’s almost 800m home straight will suit Celtic Rumours much better and she will be hard to beat this time.
She is drawn widest of all at No 10 which is not ideal, but Habib will be able to drop her out from that barrier position and will have enough time in the straight to run at the opposition.
Queen Of Shadows might not have paid a visit to the No 1 box since September 2021 but she has paced in 13 of her 21 races since then, two of them in Listed races and once in the Grade 3 Acacia Handicap.
Alec Laird’s is likely to find Celtic Rumours a touch too good but she has an excellent record ovr the distance with a win and five places from six starts.
Clive Robinson
