SEVEN-year-old chestnut mare, Bimini put down a stirring stretch run after turning up the lane then held the advantage stubbornly to the line to bring the curtains down on the 10-race card at Caymanas Park on Saturday last (January 19).

Down in grade from Open Allowance to Overnight Allowance, Bimini, by the win opened the winning account for owner/trainer Patrick Smellie. Bimini was entering the winner’s enclosure for the first time since July of 2018.

Smellie was left in raptures after the dogged performance from his mare with Trevor Simpson in the irons.

“I am ecstatic with the performance,” Smellie declared, quickly adding: “About a month ago she lost by a short head. She’s a great horse for me. Bimini was up in Open Allowance running decent races and once she dropped class, I was very confident that she would have won today (Saturday)”.

In winning the Overnight Allowance call for three-year-old and upward going 1,000 metres round, Bimini the 2/1 second favourite completed the distance in a time of 59.3 seconds while clocking fractions of 23.1, 46.1 to win by ½ a length from the 9/5 favourite Ras Emanuel who was later relegated from second to third place from an infringement during the running of the race. Third past the post Birdie My Love, a 11/1 shot was promoted to second.

“She ( Bimini) is quite a fateful performer but looking to the future there are a few younger ones in the barns across the Park for this coming year and, we will take it one step at a time and create an impact as we hope to do much better this year than we did last year. Yes, this is a great start and encouragement for the stables coming from Bimini. She continues to perform as though she has much more to offer before going off to the farm. This is a horse whom I dearly love,” Smellie advanced giving the impression that he will miss a truly great competitor from his racing stock.