The big race power combination of Richard Fourie and Sean Tarry struck early on The Championships Finale day at Turffontein on Saturday, when the Gimmethegreenlight colt Proceed finished too strongly for his five opponents to win the R300 000 TAB Gr3 Protea Stakes.
Gimmethegreenlight colt Proceed finishes strongly under Richard Fourie (Pic – JC Photos)
Building on his rather below-par TAB Gr2 SA Nursery fourth behind Fire Attack earlier this month, the Wernars family bred and raced Proceed (9-2) finished with a sustained run after grabbing a split down the outside to beat the well-supported Azzie maiden Winds Of Change (17-10) by 1,30 lengths in a time of 62,68 secs for the straight 1100m.
Winds Of Change moved up like a winner, and the stable has indicated that he may require gelding. He looks a pointer in a maiden race if ever tried in that company, after three solid seconds in feature races at his first three starts.
Nine length debut winner Buffalo Storm Cody (15-10) blew in the betting, and showed that the form behind him on 11 March was not quite up to scratch. He ran 3,70 lengths behind the runner-up on Saturday, and just scraped in for PA punters, ahead of the good-looking Chieftain.
“He’s matured a lot and he will be better over 1400m and a mile,” said Winning Form kingpin Richard Fourie of Proceed, who he suggested was still very green.
“I was disappointed with his Nursery run. We couldn’t work it out – but may have been the going. But he showed today what he’s shown us at home,” added Sean Tarry, who had saddled the winners of all three races run up to that point.
The winner is by champion Gimmethegreenlight (More Than Ready) out of the once winning Captain Al mare, Xplosive Kiss.
Proceed has won 2 races with 3 places from 5 starts for stakes of R305 000. He looks headed for the SA Champions Season down in KZN.
