2020 Eclipse Awards: Tarnawa

Through an unbeaten four-race campaign in three countries in 2020, Tarnawa was shipped to and from the races by land, air, and sea, completing a season that included wins in three of the world’s leading races for turf fillies and mares.

Tarnawa, trained in Ireland by the legendary Dermot Weld, ended her 2020 season with a one-length win in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 7 at Keeneland as the 9-2 third choice in a field of 10. The win gave the 72-year-old Weld his first Breeders’ Cup win and clinched Tarnawa’s status as a finalist for the Eclipse Award as outstanding female turf runner of 2020.

Tarnawa, a 4-year-old Irish-bred filly in 2020 by Shamardal out of Tarana, races for her breeder, The Aga Khan. She won three group stakes in Ireland in 2019. The goals were much higher in 2020.

Tarnawa won her 2020 debut in the Grade 3 Give Thanks Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on Aug. 8 at Cork Racecourse against the highly regarded Cayenne Pepper. Tarnawa, who was vanned to the race from Weld’s base at The Curragh, won by 1 3/4 lengths.

The next two wins were achieved in France through a combination of transit that included flights to France and a ferry ride on the return to Ireland.

:: Full list of 2020 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Tarnawa won the Group 1 Prix Vermeille for fillies and mares at 1 1/2 miles by three lengths on Sept. 13 at Longchamp Racecourse. She closed from the middle of a field of 10 to take the lead with a furlong remaining in the Prix Vermeille, France’s top race for fillies and mares at the distance.

Three weeks later, Tarnawa rallied from the back of a field of 14 fillies and mares to win the Prix de l’Opera at 1 1/4 miles on heavy turf on the undercard of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The win in the Prix de l’Opera gave Tarnawa a fees-paid berth to the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Weld and the team opted to face males in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at 1 1/2 miles.

Colin Keane, the champion jockey in Ireland in 2020, gained the mount on Tarnawa for the first time after Christophe Soumillon was unable to ride in the Breeders’ Cup because of a positive test for COVID-19. Despite briefly losing her footing at the start, Tarnawa rallied wide through the final three furlongs to finish a length in front of Magical, a seven-time Group 1 winner.

Tarnawa is scheduled to stay in training in 2021. She showed in 2020 that no matter how she gets to the races or gets home, she is one of the world’s finest.