Nunes still in the race
ANTHONY NUNES yesterday scraped $1.96 million off Wayne DaCosta’s lead with CORAZON’s victory in the Pick3 Super Challenge, but the champion trainer earned $655,400 for second in the event with LADY BLUE then won the co-feature with MR UNIVERSE, ending the day approximately $969,800 clear of his rival atop the trainers’ standings.
Punters had their pens and smartphones out, calculating, race-by-race, the stakes gathered by the rival barns, Nunes out-earning DaCosta for a third racemeet since Superstakes Day, cutting the deficit by $1.7 million, heading into this Saturday’s Diamond Mile.
However, Nunes’ bid to win his first trainers’ title was dealt a blow when it was announced shortly after the first race that the $14 million Diamond Mile field had stood its ground, keeping his BIGDADDYKOOL out of the 16-horse lineup, stuck at number 17 in earnings.
Nunes’ Diamond Mile hopes now rest with Oaks-winning filly FAYROUZ as his other entry, HOUDINI’S MAGIC, is one spot below BIGDADDYKOOL on the list, occupying number 18.
In contrast, DaCosta has seven horses in the event, led by defending champion SHE’S A MANEATER, whose only hurdle between her and the $6 million winner’s purse is WILL IN CHARGE, who beat her in October’s Gold Cup at seven furlongs before she avenged that loss by the bob of a head at 10 furlongs in the Superstakes.
With BIGDADDYKOOL out of the Diamond Mile, Nunes will have to hedge his bets on a WILL IN CHARGE victory and that he maintains momentum, especially his powerful cadre of youngsters for next month’s Jamaica Two-Year-Old Stakes for which CORAZON is now the ante-post favourite.
VALUABLE WIN
CORAZON, with title-chasing Dick Cardenas up, ran down PHENOM and DaCosta’s LADY BLUE, who spoiled Nunes’ plans of an exacta by beating JUICE MAN into third place, grabbing a valuable $655,200 in stakes.
Leading rider Anthony Thomas desperately tried to have LADY BLUE stay the seven furlongs, but CORAZON ran through early inside the last furlong to win by a length and a quarter.
DaCosta and Thomas returned the favour in the Pick3 Supreme Trophy at five furlongs straight, MR UNIVERSE giving Nunes’ three-year-old, PATRIARCH, lessons in sprinting, with Cardenas trying his best before being relegated to third by fast-finishing eight-year-old CAMPESINO.
Thomas, who had won the second event with MINNIFFIA, returned to close a three-timer in the night pan aboard last Wednesday’s winner, DUNROBIN, extending his lead to nine ahead of Cardenas, who teamed up with Nunes for a jockey-trainer double, CORAZON and EXHILARATE in the fifth.