One hundred and six horses will highlight the 10-race card at Caymanas Park today, with the GA ‘Sarge’ Bucknor Memorial Cup penultimate call as the principal feature.

While the programme will not be showcasing any of the premier racing talents, yet quite a decent selection of horses is spread across the races on offer to royally entertain the weekend racing fans.

All 10 races are in the fast lane of racing and fans will experience the full gamut of the selected racing category from 1,000 metres round through to 1,820 metres.

The GA ‘Sarge’ Bucknor is slotted into the 1,000 metres straight format. The race is a three-year-old and upwards call for Overnight Allowance company of runners with a purse of $780,000. A field of 11 hot steppers that include Buzz Nightmare, Royal Assault, Lady Shankari, Silver Cloud and the versatile old stager Hologram Shadow are carded to go to post at approximately 4:30 pm, with the first post at 12:15 pm.

Smokey Topaz, Meritone, Kobalt and Golden Bullet possess their share of speed, but the winner seems more than likely to progress from the first four runners mentioned with the Philip Feanny-trained Buzz Nightmare given the edge once again, although Royal Assault will not be far away with the champion jockey Shane Ellis in the irons. Like Buzz Nightmare, Royal Assault is also well drawn at barrier 10 for this type of race. The veteran rider Ian Spence, no slouch himself in the saddle, returns to pilot Buzz Nightmare, who has been quite busy on the exercise track.

In the interim the nimble-footed four-year-old bay son of Into Mischief from the Dance Brightly dam of Queen of Battle bred by Ham Stables Ltd and owned by Penyu has looked well in his exercise gallops. When last seen at the races,Buzz Nightmare gave two creditable performances behind Poker Star going 1,100 metres. On the last of those runs he led at a brisk pace for the first 800 metres, and now returning from his 133-day respite in good racing shape and a drop in class, should hold the advantage back to the line.

Royal Assault, who is expected to be the nemesis of Buzz Nightmare, has also taken a drop in class and one who is known to hold his form well. In so doing, he is expected to be competitive throughout in an effort to at the very least try to reverse one of two defeats suffered from Buzz Nightmare earlier.

While the lightly weighted Lady Shankari is no chicken over the straight course, something has to go terribly wrong to get between these two. Silver Cloud’s most recent win was recorded over this distance but the ask to defeat these two at this moment is being a little over-zealous, even with the four-time champion and leading rider in the tack.

Quite a competitive race could unfold in the 10th and final where a seemingly capable full field of 16 are gearing to release their maiden tag in exciting fashion. That’s The Man, Zoomin, Copperfield, Jason’s Dream, War Advocate and the very well-bred debutante Princess Emanuelle all look lively and capable enough to follow in the footsteps of the race while also going 1,000 metres straight but for the major slice of a $768,000 purse.

Ones To Watch

Race 1

Choo Choo Blue (Robert Halledeen)

Race 2

Sonador Express (Robert Halledeen)

Race 3

Perfect Gold (Ansley Dansel)

Race 4

The Real Rhythm (Odeen Edwards)

Race 5

Camouflage (Ruja Lahoe)

Race 6

Wonder Girl (Dane Dawkins)

Race 7

Stormonthesea (Andre Powell)

Race 8

Sir Leyland Hall (Bebeto Harvey)

Race 9

Buzz Nightmare (Ian Spence)

Race 10

Princess Emanuelle (Rayan Wilson)