Bad Boy Justin captures feature at Caymanas Park
On a day when seven races on the nine-race programme were dedicated to trainers, the Dwight Chen-trained Bad Boy Justin took the spotlight by capturing the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers’ Association (JRTA) Trophy at Caymanas Park yesterday.
Ridden by three-time champion jockey in waiting Dane Nelson, Bad Boy Justin was sent off as an 8-1 betting chance in a field of 10 runners going over 1,200 metres (six furlongs).
Turning for home in fourth position, Nelson, using hands only, produced the gelding against the rail and Bad Boy Justin responded well and romped the Restricted Allowance event for native-bred three-year-olds non-winner of two races in fine style by one-and-a-half lengths.
Three-to-five favourite, Raja Sarangi (Shane Ellis), who was slowly out of starting gates and assumed the lead turning for home, was second, and 14-1 shot and long-time leader Stormonthesea (Robert Halledeen up) was third with Lord Chespo (Orlando Foster) came on for fourth in a time of 1:14:1 minutes.
Bad Boy Justin, a chestnut gelding by Tracking-Fire Red by Explosive Red is owned by Norris Phinn and bred by Phillip Azar.
Bad Boy Justin was one of three winners for Nelson, with the others being Opulent and St Mary.
Meanwhile, Timeforarms easily won the co-feature, the Seymour ‘Foggy’ Memorial Trophy, an Overnight Allowance event for three-year-olds and upward going over 1,500 metres.
With Omar Walker riding for trainer Fitzroy Glispie, Timeforarms (Twilight Time-Armsofanangel), was held in mid-pack for most of the way before picking up the lead turning for home to win by one-and-a-half lengths from Royal Vibes (Paul Francis) and Scoop Jordyne (Kuri Powell) in a time of 1:31:3 minutes.
“This horse (Timeforarms) is a class cut above these. He was of full running today (yesterday) and even when he passed the winning post he was still full of running. If the race was going half or a furlong longer he still would have won,” Walker told the Sunday Observer.
In a bold front-running effort, the Denrick Chambers-conditioned Searching For Gold, with Michael Pottinger Jnr in the saddle, won the first of two Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) Exercise Riders’ Race ($180,000 claiming event) going over 800 metres. Time Of Storm (Tevin Foster) was second and Willinston (Javaniel Patterson) third in a time of
47.2 seconds.
The second CTL Exercise Riders event went to Madiba, ridden by Linton Steadman for trainer Robert Darby (Snr).
Madiba was two-and-a-half lengths in front of Vibes Master (Jerome Innis) and Gold Rush (Michael Pottinger Jnr) in a time of 47.1 seconds for the 800-metre event.
Racing continues today.