THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN: TARRANT DESERVES CREDIT FOR GETTING BACK ON TRACK

By Graham Potter | Sunday, December 4, 2016

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

Two years ago Luke Tarrant, then a young, rising, riding talent scored his first Black Type success when he guided Rudy to victory in the Recognition Stakes.

Last Saturday the Sunshine Coast based Tarrant scored his second win in the race, this time aboard Cylinder Beach and, given the twists and turns that Tarrant’s career had taken in-between those two victories, Saturday’s win could be of even greater significance.

Suffice to say that Tarrant went astray and paid a hefty penalty for his indiscretions to the degree that when he returned to race riding he virtually had to start over in terms of earning the sort of support needed from a wide range of trainers in order to be able to give full rein and expression to his riding capabilities which, even amongst the doubters, was never in question.

The Rudy win in 2014 continued the momentum that Tarrant was building at the time. Less than two months later Tarrant combined with Sunshine Coast trainer Darryl Hansen to take out the 2015, $2 million Magic Millions Two-year-old Classic with Le Chef, a magnificent, career highlight moment for the duo.

The world was at Tarrant’s feet ... but then he tripped and fell over.

Fast forward to the present day and now we have Tarrant building the same sort of momentum that led to his previous rapid rise in the riding ranks.

I know there are some who find it easy to knock somebody when they are down and just as easy to sit self-righteously on the fence and wait for those who have lifted themselves up again, to fall ... and I am not naïve about that possibility ... but I prefer to look at where a person is going rather than where they are coming from.

In Tarrant’s case at this time, the bottom line is he deserves every credit for doing the hard work required to get himself back in the game in such a telling fashion.

Can Tarrant go on to truly fulfil his potential?

That is another story all together.

For now though, he is both literally and figuratively back on track and that represents a good outcome compared to the darker alternative that beckoned not so long ago!

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