St Cecelia has had the unique privilege of winning the Gold Cup more than once.

The filly won the seven-furlong event (1,400m) in 2009, 2011 and 2012, stamping her class as one of the best-ever fillies to grace the track at Caymanas Park.

Panamanian jockey Dick Cardenas was aboard St Cecelia for trainer Spencer Chung in 2009 after he started riding in Jamaica for just a short while.

“Winning the Gold Cup aboard St Cecelia left me with a nice and wonderful feeling. It was amazing as it was a job well done. The Gold Cup was a very tough race with a number of good and capable horses present. But I had a nice horse under me. St Cecelia had a lot of speed and she had to be rated to get the best performance out of her as it was a very tough race,” Cardenas said.

At no point did Cardenas harbour any doubts about losing.

“I knew St Cecelia had a lot of speed but I had to manage that speed and the race well from the off. So, when I left the gates, I did not rush her but instead eased her forward little by little to stay with them. This was until we went by the half mile,” he noted.

Cardenas said that St Cecelia runs best on the inside rails, and once he got her in a good position he knew it was going to be smooth sailing from there on.

“She did not like it on the outside, so I positioned her against the rails and from there on went on to win the race. It was a race that was well worked to get the victory, but I must admit that I had a really nice horse to get the job done.

“The instructions from the trainer was to break well then sit with them and I did that, and when the time came use her speed in the final part of the race. Looking back, it was a nice performance from the horse,” Cardenas said.

St Cecelia won in a time of 1:24.3.

Cardenas was reported at the time as saying: “Me very confident today… she too light and this one of my biggest wins since coming to Jamaica.”