WHISKY BARON PROVES TOO GOOD IN THE SUN MET

Crawford runner quickened clear late

IT was a big day of racing at Kenilworth on Saturday with huge stakes paid out but the race most came to see was the Sun Met and it proved to be just as exciting as was anticipated with Whisky Baron proving a bit too good for his rivals.

Unbeaten in five starts since being gelded the Australian bred sat midfield and a bit wide early on in the race as stable companion Captain America made the early running.

Well backed favourite Legal Eagle sat back in about fourth place with Gold Standard behind him and Whisky Baron was just ahead of second favourite Marinaresco but both were giving quite a bit of start into the straight.

Captain America was quickly challenged by both Legal Eagle and Gold Standard and these three looked likely to battle it out until Whisky Baron swopped past them to win comfortably.

Legal Eagle ended up in the runner-up berth with Captain America a very game third and the threeyear-old Gold Standard fourth.

It was close for fifth and sixth with Marinaresco coming on the scene very late on the outside rail to be slightly ahead of Bela-Bela on the rail.

It is possible that Marinaresco had made his run from too far back and had run in the worst going but at the end it was a win of top quality from Whisky Baron.

This was the third Met win for trainer Brett Crawford and the first for jockey Greg Cheyne.

The quality mare Carry On Alice bounced back to winning form and took the first of the Grade 1 races on the day, winning the Betting World Sprint over 1 200m.

It took a very strong ride by jockey S’Manga Khumalo to beat stable companion Trip To Heaven with Red Ray just behind in third place.

Trip To Heaven under jockey Grant van Niekerk was a very unlucky loser as he battled to get a clear run.

Nightingale in the Grade 1 Klawervlei Majorca Stakes and Edict Of Nates in the Grade 1 Investec Cape Derby were both decent winners of their races. There were also the two big CTS Sales races worth US$500,000 each and those races were won by Live Life and William Longsword.

The 1 200m Sprint Race was won by Live Life and William Longsword justified some big winning bets to take the 1 600m race.