THE Hamark Farms-owned Campesino, under a powerful ride from veteran jockey Ian Spence, came with a strong run in the final furlong to win the St Catherine Cup in fine style at Caymanas Park yesterday.

Trained by the 14-time champion Philip Feanny, Campesino, who was sent off as a 5-1 betting chance, took the Open Allowance (three-year-olds and upward) event with an electrifying run to score by two-and-a-quarter lengths in an eye-catching time of 1.05:3 minutes, behind splits of 22:3 and 46:1 seconds going over 1,100 metres on a fast racetrack.

Border Line, under Omar Walker, came flying in the final stages of race to snatch second place from the vastly-improved and long-time leader Step It Up (Robert Halledeen astride), with Piscean Rocket (Dane Nelson up), who missed the break, completing the frame in the seven-horse field.

Spence, who hasn’t ridden a winner for some time now, said that he was happy for the victory.

“It has been a while, but I am happy for the win. The plan coming into the race was to get a clean break and hold (Campesino) behind the pace and ask him to run the last two furlongs of the race, and it did the trick today (yesterday), and I am happy for that,” Spence said in the winners’ enclosure.

Spence held Campesino in mid-pack behind leaders Step It Up, Fortuneonehundred (Romario Saunders in the saddle) and Kipling Weekend (Orlando Foster aboard) approaching the home turn.

Turning for home in second position, Campesino responded well from the urging of Spence and drew away from the field for an emphatic victory.

Campesino, a five-year-old bay gelding by Comprade – Yella by Bold Executive was registering his first win for the season from two starts and pocketed $429,400 as the winner’s share for a lifetime earnings of just over $3.5 million.