Sentient comes of age at four
Taking off the visor has helped says trainer Gary Subratie
For most of his career Sentient has played second fiddle to the likes of Supreme Soul and Toona Cilita.
Now the talent Strikewhileitshot – Lady Geetadeo offspring is bursting through with consistent authority and his making his mark in a profound manner on the race track.
Sentient, in his last 11 races, has won six times over distances ranging from six furlongs to nine furlongs and 25 yards, in what has been a display of not only his strength but his undoubted versatility.
The latest victory for this four-year-old, who must now be the second highest rated horse at Caymanas Park behind Toona Ciliata, came on Saturday (October 10) at the Open Allowance level travelling six furlongs – a distance considered to be short of his best.
Sentient, trained by Gary Subratie and ridden by Robert Halledeen, came from back of the pack to beat rivals by 2 ½ lengths going away, finishing in a time of 1:11.3. Sir Alton (Anthony Thomas) finished second and God of Love (Oshane Nugent) third.
It was a victory that served to cement Sentient’s capabilities certainly in the mind of trainer Subratie and the many who watched his versaile effort.
“Sentient has never done anything wrong in his career; we have had some poor rides on him and we corrected some of the things that needed correcting such as having the visor removed and since then, he has not done any bad, so we are going to stick with that and see what happens from there.
“Sentient showed on last before he ran this race, he is competitive. He was always competitive with these horses and he demonstrated today that he can sprint as well. We are just going to take it one step at a time. We really do not have a race in mind right now we just want to see how he comes out of this race before concrete plans are made with the owner, the Success Farms.
“I think the other races are about three-four weeks away so, we will just look and see with those races as they come on stream,” Subratie said.
Trevor James representing the Success Farms in his comments after another Sentient victory said: “We made an investment in this horse and he is delivering. I thank all those responsible for taking him to the track each and every time in such good shape. Right now I am very pleased.”