After showing high class form as a two-year-old in 1997, Tamarisk was named European Champion Sprinter at the 1998 Cartier Racing Awards following a campaign which was highlighted by a win in the Group One Haydock Sprint Cup.
[1] Tamarisk's dam Sine Labe was unraced but came from a good family, being a half sister of the Prix Saint-Alary winner Treble and a close relative of the multiple Group One winning racemare Triptych.
[2] Tamarisk was sent as a yearling to the Tattersalls sales in October 1996, where he was sold for 78,000gns to John Warren, a director of Highclere Thoroughbred Racing syndicate.
[5] Three weeks after his Kempton win Tamarisk was sent to Newmarket for the Tattersalls Houghton Sales Conditions Stakes over seven furlongs and was made 5/4 favourite.
He showed good early speed to lead until the final quarter mile but weakened badly and finished sixteenth of the eighteen runners.
[9] In the Group One July Cup at Newmarket Tamarisk was never able to catch the front-running Elnadim but stayed on well to hold second place in a field of seventeen.
He ran on strongly, despite drifting left in the closing stages, to record his most important victory, beating Bolshoi by one and three quarter lengths with Elnadim and Lochangel unplaced.
Lukas however, decided to give Tamarisk a prep race on dirt at Keeneland in which the colt put in a poor performance and finished last.
The Breeders’ Cup handicappers took the view that the form Tamarisk had displayed in the race was below the required standard and excluded the colt from the Sprint field.
"[14] An aggravating feature for Tamarisk's connections was that Bolshoi, rated five pounds inferior on European form, was allowed to take part and was beaten less than four lengths.
He did show some glimpses of his old form in June, when he was beaten a short head in a Listed race at Windsor and finished sixth of twenty-two runners in the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.