Hover Craft glides to on the wire victory
Hover Craft , even at eight-years -old returned to Open Allowance company with a hair-raising win over the five-straight course (1,000 metres) on Saturday, September 8, at Caymanas Park.
Racing at odds of 15-1, after a short rest, Hover Craft was nowhere around during the first four furlongs (800 metres) of the race. Then in typical style, Hover Craft (Omar Walker) found his legs and being favourable drawn on the outside, came with a surging run to catch and nip Crucial Appeal (Oneil Mullings) and Birdie My Love (Oneil Scott) on the line.
Hover Craft, on what was listed as a fast track, on the day, clocked a sizzling 57.2 seconds with 126 lb (57.0 kgs) in his back while recording fast splits of 22.2 and 44.2.
It was a win that left trainer Wayne DaCosta pleased and in high spirits with the day’s effort following a similar earlier win on the day by She’s A Maneater who like Hover Craft looked helplessly out of it going 1,200 metres after turning up the lane. The super filly like Hover Craft somehow found extra where it mattered most.
Hover Craft was scratched out of his last race after being declared lame at the gates.
“Very happy with the win. He is an old campaigner and one of my favourite runners who always gives of his best. In fact, he scored his first win over the course, so it was not beyond him to win a five-straight race.
“He had problems coming into this race but we were able to sort them out and we thought the five straight would have been easy on him and he duly delivered the goods.”
“At eight years old he seems to be still very competitive and going forward there is a 7 1/2-furlong race available at the end of the month and it is likely that he could run there,” DaCosta said.