Race Day Review — Saturday, March 16, 2024
MUCH, and rightly so, is made of the increased sponsorship of the Mouttet Mile to be staged on the first Saturday in December for a record total purse of US$250,000.
Already certain eligibility criteria for entry are being proposed, including mandatory access for horses winning certain stipulated higher-category events.
This writer has no objection to this as one method; however, a fairer approach is to establish handicap rating for local and overseas classification to ensure that at the appropriate time the best horses in training are invited to compete with the handicap form of the runners equalised.
The six-length victory of superior Rough Entry (USA), unraced in Jamaica before winning the race last December, is an indication that the criterion of merely highest stakes earners requires a debate.
By way of a suggestion, the offer of US$150,000 purse for last year is adequate and the US$100,000 increase may have been utilised better if an additional race day and a race, restricted horses bred locally over a different distance, was an offer.
On another matter, except when the use of a whip is deployed in a manner to hurt a horse, the gazetted stipulations restricting a jockey to a prescribed number of strokes during a race is hardly enforceable as a matter of practicality and should be revisited.
Note also there is an unspecified number of lengths clear which should exempt a horse leading or in the rear from being whipped. There needs to be specificity here, as there is a variety of responses and reactions from horses to the use of the whip. Interestingly, except when the permission of the operations stewards is sought and granted, also gazetted is a directive a race should have an actual off time of no more than five minutes later than the programmed post time.
Another gazetted matter, against the background of an ever-reducing horse population, is to restrict the annual importation of gelded horses to 10 and not older than five years, which was a reasonable time-honoured protectionist move in favour of the local breeding industry, but the timing is now questionable.
Surely a more viable option would have been to abandon restrictions as of now and then going forward conduct a seasonal review of the numbers.
The opening event of 10, contested over 1,000 metres straight, was secured in a 15-1 upset victory by Curlin’s Choice, partnered by two-kilo claimer Shane Richardson for trainer Michael Hall.
Trained by Delroy Wisdom and piloted by claiming two-kilo reinsman Ramon Nepare, even money joint favourite Cave Man beat four rivals over a distance similar to that of race one.
In race three veteran Everton Stone rode the 92nd winner of his four-decade chequered career aboard So Magnificent, trained by Linton Calder.
It was 11-1 against the lightly raced seven-yearold mare in this 1,400-metre gallop and 7-1 when she scored in her previous outing over 1,100 metres a fortnight ago. Conditioner Gary Subratie saddled the first of two winners from his stable with 2022 champion Dane Dawkins guiding All For Love (7-2) to victory over the 1,200 metres of race four.
The leading rider Tevin Foster was in quadruple riding from race five through to the eighth. Firstly, Ryan Darby’s four-year-old Cosmic Force
coasted by six lengths at even money in the 1,400-metre race five. For his second, the task of Foster was easy in race six, run at 1,100 metres with Patrick Lynch’s Us-bred front-running Joy Is Golden (2-1) nearly seven lengths ahead at the finish.
Things got even less exacting for the skills of Foster to land the third, as Lawrence Freemantle-saddled threeyear-old maiden Shany Star
(5-2) delivered an all-the-way triumph ending eight-anda-half lengths clear of her nearest rival in the 1,300-metre exertion of race seven.
Early favourite for the 2024 riding title, Foster, for his fourth on the card and win number 30 this season, drove Robert Pearson’s even-money-gambled Posing Already to victory by a neck over the 1,000 metres of the straight course to secure the eighth event. Foster is now nine wins clear of pursuing Raddesh Roman, whose only success on the card came aboard 9-5 bet Natural Dancer for the stable double of Gary Subratie to be confirmed in the 1,000-metre straight race nine.
Featured on the programme and run as race 10 was another staging of the Henry W Jaghai 1,200metre Memorial Trophy.
The progressive form of Vincent Atkinson’s Rhythm Buzz
(9-2) continued, as the benefit of the skilful and patient handling of Javaneil Patterson resulted in a successful challenge for the lead to better five-year-old Kentucky-bred Wall Street Trader, winner of two races from 21 starts in the United States.
The Training Feat Award is presented to Linton Calder for presenting So Magnificent in sufficiently improved condition to take on a much stronger field and scoring easily by three-and-a-half lengths.
The Best Winning Gallop was executed by Rhythm Buzz
and Javaniel Patterson’s performance entitles him to the Jockeyship Award.