Classy Patriarch set for big performance
WORKING LIKE an aeroplane in the mornings, Anthony Nunes’ PATRIARCH, should make short work of 12 rivals on his comeback in this afternoon’s six-furlong Ahwhofah Sprint for overnight allowance horses.
A winner of four of five starts as a twoyear-old last season, PATRIARCH was on the cusp of being named last season’s champion two-year-old before his bad knees gave way, going for a fifth straight win in December’s Jamaica Two-Year-Old Stakes.
Nunes has nursed PATRIARCH back from surgery and a near 10-month lay-up, during which he missed the three-year-old classic season from which the likes of MARQUESAS and his own stablemate, FAYROUZ, have emerged as up-and-coming graded stakes candidates – horses with whom he would have toyed had he remained sound..
There is no question to be asked of his well-being, having busted the clockmen’s watches in his last two workouts - 1:05.3 for five and a half furlongs, the last five in 58.3, from a flat gallop coming off the backstretch on Sunday morning.
PATRIARCH breezed five furlongs straight in 58.0 the previous Monday, flashing past the stands in 45.2 for the last half-mile. A voracious galloper, Dick Cardenas’ knees will be in PATRIARCH’s ears from the word go with the possibility of him lowering his six-furlong time of 1:12.0 as a two-year-old, considering the track has been on the fast side for the last two meets.
Though he faces older horses for the first time, PATRIARCH has absolutely nothing to fear. The Casual TrickElectrifying colt showed graded-stakes potential from his very first race last year September, trotting up by 10 lengths in 58.3 at five furlongs straight before turning back his two-year-old peers in the Cash Pot Trophy, Juvenile Stakes and P ick-3 Super Challenge.