Runaway Algo canters home in feature race
With no speed to contend with, Runaway Algo, the Dale Murphy-trained American-bred chestnut colt, led from the first jump and was never challenged in a dominating victory in the inaugural staging of the $1.14million Bridge 99 FM Cup feature race at Caymanas Park on Sunday.
Bred by Algorithms out of the Greeley mare Misunify, Runaway Algo broke sharply at the start and immediately surged to the front and held a comfortable lead ahead of
Dunrobin (Matthew Bennett),
Amy The Butcher (Prince Holder), and Oneofakind (Reyan Lewis) down the backstretch.
At the half-mile (800m), when the pace was expected to increase, Runaway Algo was still relaxed on the front end as Oneofakind burst through the chasing pack and was under serious urging but never really gaining, and from there on, the writing was on the wall.
Turning for home, jockey
Christopher Mamdeen let the notch loose and Runaway Algo responded well by hitting another gear and looking very comfortable in deep stretch, easing down in the end for a two-and-a-half-length victory in the three-year-old and upward Overnight Allowance race over seven-and-a-half furlongs.
Oneofakind, who was coming off a 190-day break due to injury, lost no marks in defeat, while finishing in second place, some 13 lengths ahead of Ras Emanuel (Shane Richardson) in third place.
Runaway Algo stopped the clock in 1:30.4, an encouraging time compared to the track record of 1:29.2 recorded by
Sky Train back in 1983.
Meanwhile, Silent Mission upset rivals at odds of 19-1 in the $1.09-million Ronron Trophy, a Restricted Stakes event for native-bred threeyear-olds and four-year-olds (non-winners of four)/imported three-year-old and upwards (non-winners of three) over six furlongs.
Trained by Jason Dacosta and ridden by Javaniel Patterson, Silent Mission came from off the pace to beat stablemate Tekapunt (Chris Mamdeen) and Rubyistheone (Tevin Foster) by a length and a quarter in a time of 1:13.1.
Jockeys Roger Hewitt and Matthew Bennett shared riding honours with two wins each on the 10-race programme.
Hewitt was successful aboard Diligent for trainer Christopher Pierre in the second race and Custer in the fifth race for trainer Welsh Soutar.
Bennett won aboard D’s Choice in the sixth race for trainer Alford Brown and March and Shoot in the 10th and final event for trainer Ray Phillips.
Racing
Saturday. continues on