ROVING STAR BEATS THE ODDS
It’s not often that we see a horse breaking the maiden tag and winning the first time in the class above. Such was the case with the Kevin Brivette – conditioned Roving Star. On Saturday, Roving Star returned in a non-winner of two contest, four-year-old and up (1,000 metres straight), with his regular riding partner Laird Bailey, and outran Stormonthesea (Robert Halledeen) and Music Director (Orayne Sewell). The winning time was 1:00:3 minutes. The win by Roving Star provided both owner and trainer with their second winner for the year.
Six horses were claimed on the 10-race Valentine’s Day programme at Caymanas Park last Saturday. El Cliente was claimed from Wayne DaCosta by Ryan Darby for Raphael Gordon for $450,000; Flying Miracle was claimed from Gary Griffiths by Boris McIntosh acting as both trainer and owner, also for $450,000, and Tensang Chung claimed Trail Blazer for James B Chen from Delroy Wisdom for $450,000 from the third race. In the ninth race, Welsh Soutar took Saint Mary for The Seeker from Collin Ferguson for $250,000; Phillip Elliott claimed Laptop from Leroy Tomlinson for Basil Wade for $250,000, and the Lawrence Freemantle-trained Cold Ground was taken by Heaton Thomas for himself for $250,000.
The consistent colt, Zackontheattack showed his sprinting prowess with a fine display of sprinting when winning the Howard Phillipps Memorial trophy at Caymanas Park on Saturday. Ridden by Aaron Chatrie and trained by Gary Subratie, Zackontheattack quickly moved away from his 13 rivals, turning for home to win by an ever-increasing seven-and-a-half lengths in the Restricted Allowance non-winners of three (four-year-olds and up) going over 1,100 metres. The winning time was 1:06:0 minutes.
Winston ‘Fanna’ Griffiths is not the force of yesteryear, but he continues to ride winners when called upon to so do. This legend of horse racing in Jamaica demonstrated on Saturday that he still possesses the winning touch, guiding the Delroy Wisdom-trained Trail Blazer to the winning post over Official Report and Flying Miracle. It was only Griffiths’ third ride for the season.
