No stopping classy Desert of Malibu
DESERT OF MALIBU returning in tomorrow’s Reggae Month Trophy at five furlongs straight, picking up a paltry five pounds, is the proverbial slap in the face that the condition book presents when ‘races won’ are measured by quantity instead of quality.
An out-of-class display in the St Catherine Cup, spotting the field a dozen, or more, lengths at six furlongs - 13 lengths behind at the half-mile marker - before reeling in MADELYN’S SUNSHINE, rubberstamped DESERT OF MALIBU’s status as a grade-one horse, who would not have been off the board had she competed in the Mouttet Mile.
Having won her first two races at five furlongs straight from post-positions two and three, respectively, unless consideration is given to DESERT OF MALIBU’s poor start last out, it will take a brave punter to oppose her breaking from mid-gate in a sevenhorse line-up.
MADELYN’S SUNSHINE, the horse that featured in the only blot in DESERT OF MALIBU’s playbook, her disqualification on Mouttet Mile Day for interference at the half-mile marker, has risen a pound in the scale - effectively a four-pound ‘advantage’ at the handicaps - after giving up a 13-length lead in the St Catherine Cup.
If that wasn’t enough, EMPEROROFTHECATS, who never got a whiff of the lead in the St Catherine Cup while finishing third, was somehow allotted 126lb, sharing a five-pound ‘penalty’with DESERT OF MALIBU after finishing six and a half lengths behind the United States-bred mare, forcing Carl Anderson to call in sevenpound claimer Richard Henry.
On the face of the weight allotments for the Reggae Month Trophy, it appears as though the St Catherine Cup never happened, a race won in 1:12.3 by DESERT OF MALIBU, who closed 13 lengths off cracking splits of 22.2, 34.0, 46.1 and 58.4.