Rejected in the betting at 10-1, Traditional Prince under the strong rail guidance of Aaron Chatrie came with a terrific late surge to beat his more favoured rivals in yesterday’s feature event for The Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission Trophy over 1,100 metres at Caymanas Park.

The Patrick Lynch-trained charge stumbled out of the gate from the number nine draw, as Tooting Kat (Arthur Budhu) and the highly touted Talented Tony K (Wesley Henry) dictated the pace. But as the runners approached the homestretch it was FortuneOneHundred (Robert Halledeen) who went in front and seemed to have stolen a march, before coming under immense pressure from Edison (Omar Walker), with Traditional Prince making heavy progress on the inside rails leaving the furlong pole.

With a furlong to go, three horses were strewn across the track with Traditional Prince finding the extra necessary to just get the better of FortuneOneHundred by a head, with the fast-finishing Scoop Jordyne (Paul Francis) taking third. Traditional Prince covered the distance in a time of 1:06.4 minutes, with splits of 22.3, 46.2 seconds.

Chatrie who also got the better of Halledeen in another close finish aboard Above the Radar was delighted with the win.

“I feel overwhelmed because at one point I thought, I lost the race because I didn’t get a good start. The horse reared at the start and I had to get him in the race, position him on the rails and look for the shortest route to barely get home a winner,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

While Traditional Prince took the feature event top honours on the long 12-race card went to title chasing jockey Robert Halledeen who rode a spanking triple, Dreamliner in the first, Prematuree in the eighth and Dwayne Star in the ninth. The three timer by Halledeen moved him into joint second place with 46 winners, the same as Omar Walker. Shane Ellis leads with 48 wins.

Traditional Prince, with Aaron Chatrie standing in the saddle, gets up in time to win the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Trophy at Caymanas Park yesterday. Second was Fortuneonehundred (#8). (PHOTO: JOSEPH WELLINGTON)