Sean Tarry’s Under Your Spell became the first filly since the American-bred Overarching in 2006 to win the R400 000 WSB Gr2 Hawaii Stakes when she finished powerfully to beat a decent mixed-sex field in Saturday’s 2023 renewal of the 1400m contest.
A Gr1 winner at 2, the 4yo Under Your Spell (25-2) was given a patient ride by Louis Mxothwa, and despite running three wide, she finished with plenty in reserve to beat Joey Soma’s free-striding 2022 SA Classic winner Red Saxon by 1,50 lengths lengths in a time of 88,11 secs.
Under Your Spell comes home strongly under Louis Mxothwa (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
The pacesetting Humdinger (25-2) tired late but was not disgraced a further 0,75 lengths back in third, with her forward galloping stablemate Forever Mine (25-1) back in fourth.
After having seen a planned European and Australian export fall through, her happy owners, including Aussie-based OTI Management, will be positive about her prospects.
Sean Tarry originally bought Under Your Spell as part of a parcel of horses online and unseen.
A Summerhill bred daughter of Capetown Noir (Western Winter) out of the unraced Irish-bred Deceptive Charm (Kingmambo), Under Your Spell is from the same family as the accomplished Witchcraft who Tarry trained to win over a trip.
Under Your Spell made it eight wins with seven places from nineteen starts and took her stakes earnings to R1 482 000.
The Pick 6 pool on the big day fell marginally short of projections and reached a net R5 979 873.
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