The Dermot Weld-trained filly had won three Group races as a three-year-old, but really shone at four, when she was unbeaten in four starts. The Give Thanks Stakes at Cork in August set Tarnawa up perfectly for the Prix Vermeille, which she won readily by three lengths. The following month, she outbattled Coronation Stakes winner Alpine Star and Prix Jean Romanet winner Audarya in the Prix de l’Opeéra, before heading to the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland. Here Audarya won the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, while Tarnawa took on, and defeated, the colts in the Breeders’ Cup Turf - although it was another filly that finished closest, the multiple Group 1 winner Magical.
Kept in training as a five-year-old, after a break at Gilltown Tarnawa made a winning comeback in the Ballyroan Stakes at Leopardstown in 2021. She then came within less than a length of adding two more Group 1 races to her tally, finding only Siyouni’s son St Mark’s Basilica too good in the Irish Champion Stakes, after being carried across the course, and finishing second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Tarnawa retired to stud at the end of 2021 and was covered by Frankel the following spring.
