CRUISER, enjoying his best racing in his fifth and sixth years and fresh from a three-timer, seeks to continue in a similar vein when contesting the competitive $492,000 Altamont V Armond Memorial Cup feature at Caymanas Park today.

The Altamont V Armond is the seventh on the card, going 2,000 metres, and has attracted 13 starters. Studded with a number of capable three-year-olds and upward and native-bred five-year-olds (NW3) in the claiming spread $350,000-$300,000 the highlight of the day’s nine races has a scheduled post set at approximately 3:45 pm with first post at 12:30 pm.

Claiming apprentice Davidan Robinson, who was aboard Cruiser for his last two wins, will again have the leg up — only this time for trainer Lance P Richards and owner DG Stable.

After going four races without a victory as a five year-old, Cruiser by War Marshall out of Catamaran (Category) and bred by Shawn Tulloch, returned to the win the sixth race of his career on November 28, 2012. Since then, the stretch running son of War Marshall has continued the trend and produced another three.

Bred to get extreme distances, the farthest Cruiser has gone in his last 10 races was 1,820 metres of which he has won three and was never less than a fourth-place finish in the other two. A consistent performer over stamina testing journeys, Cruiser has not attempted 2,000 metres in more than a dozen starts.

For his consistency, Cruiser was saddled with 56.0kg, but will come in with only 52.0kg owing to the 4.0kg claim of his apprentice rider, and for this will be among a number telling closers in the final mix, that include Vonalmighty, Jagsover, General C, No Smoking, and the five-year-old imported dark bay/brown mare D’Nugget.

While Cruiser could turn out to be the pick of the paddock, by maintaining his winning streak, the down in grade Vonalmighty will be no pushover. For even on his off day, whilst in good health, none of these would even come close to testing his resilience.

However, his last few runs have shown that all might not be well with the far-striding son of Western Classic and has been marking time alternating between Open and Overnight Allowance company with the probability of regaining some of his earlier fluency to remain at that level, but failing to do so he is now dropped down to a level where he should be effective.

This looks a potent prospect and should be in reasonably good enough shape to be considered seriously to be among the top finishers when roll call begins.

Trained by Ian Parsard for owner Raymond I Townsend, Vonalmighty, a seven-year-old bay gelding by Western Classic out of Lunar Explosion (Outflanker), was bred by Ham Stables Ltd. With only 54.0kg and the in-form four-time champion jockey Omar Walker in the saddle, Vonalmighty could show how much he appreciates the drop in grade and reward connections with a victory.

Another who will thoroughly enjoy this trip is the late-kicking Jagsover. A five-year-old chestnut gelding by Pat N Jac out of Over Draft (Seminole Canyon) and bred by Courtney Walsh, Jagsover possesses the best late kick in the line-up, and despite what appeared to be a non-effort on last, once returning in good heart, could beat this group of horses from a capital effort.

With his style of running, he gets the ideal trip and with his favourite rider, Richard Mitchell returning to the saddle for the test of stamina run, Jagsover will be putting his best strides together in deep stretch as he motors forward to get there just in time for his share of the spoils.

Ones To Watch

Race 1 Commander One (Dane Nelson)

Race 2 Social Butterfly (Orlando Foster)

Race 3 Piscean Rocket (Omar Walker)

Race 4 Rock Union (Shane Ellis)

Race 5 My Money (Obrien White)

Race 6 Skipaway Prince (Sadiki Blake)

Race 7 Jagsover (Richard Mitchell)

Race 8 Cantare (Dane Nelson)

Race 9 Mumbai Maestro (Andre Martin)