KINGSTON, Jamaica - Taranis, a seven-year-old chestnut gelded son of Adore The Gold returned to the races for the fourth time since 2017 in a $1,000,000 - $850,000 optional claiming race for three-year-olds and upwards and native-bred four-year-olds non-winners of four going five furlongs (1000 metres) round and promptly defied the odds by winning the event at 9-1 at Caymanas Park on Saturday, September 13.
Trained by Andrew McDonald for owner Raymond Townsend, Taranis was finding the winners’ enclosure for the first time since 2016.
Well ridden by jockey Robert Halledeen, Taranis showed his fellow runners the back of his hooves after straightening for the drive and won in a driving finish by 1 ½ lengths in a time of 1:01.1.
Fly First Class, a four-year-old bay filly with champion jockey Anthony Thomas in the irons was second with Adonis the 3-5 favourite closing the trifecta another 1 ¼ lengths behind with Linton Steadman.
During the dry period, tough issues plagued, the well-bred and talented half-brother to Bigdaddykool and this year’s Triple Crown winner Supreme Soul, but Taranis still remained active and consistent to pay his way while floating between the claiming scales even as low as $450,000.
Following Taranis’s victory, Ricardo Brown assistant trainer to McDonald said. “In his preparation, we uncovered certain issues but after the discovery, we dealt with them and he showed in his exercise gallops that he wanted to run. We then looked around for a race that suited him and came up with this test for I knew that his rivals would come back to him. At the start, he (Taranis) got a good break and the leaders started to come back to him and he just said to himself, ‘come on big daddy, it’s time to go’. The victory was reassuring but at this stage, we would just want to wait and see how he comes out of the race. We may just put him down for a while and then take it from there.”
