Toona Ciliata, under a well-executed ride from Linton Steadman, outran rivals to win the $1- million Royal Dad Trophy feature to kick-start the Golden Weekend of racing at Caymanas Park yesterday.

The three-year-old chestnut gelding, who lost out by a short-head to stable companion Supreme Soul in the recent St Leger, made no mistake this time in getting the better of Sentient and She’s An Introvert by two powerful lengths.

Toona Ciliata ran the 9 furlong and 25 yards (1,820m) event in a quick 1:56.1 for his third win of the season from eight starts.

Steadman wasn’t in a rush as he held Toona Ciliata off the pace in mid-pack while Black River (Samantha Fletcher) led the field around the clubhouse turn ahead of Universal Boss (Reyan Lewis) and Sentient (Anthony Thomas).

Toona Ciliata got into the mix of things leaving the 5 furlong (1,000m) marker when he slipped down into second behind Sentient, with She’s An Introvert (Christopher Mamdeen) backed in third.

The top three separated themselves from the rest of the field running the half mile (800m) turn but it was Toona Ciliata who proved the strongest of the lot.

Toona Ciliata by Soul Warrior – Red Gold is owned by Stephan Narinesingh, Wilbert Bagwandeen and Ajax Bjorn, and trained by Anthony Nunes.

Wow Wow, trained by Gary Subratie and ridden by Ameth Robles, made one move to win the $950,000 Terremoto Trophy — a Restricted Allowance for native-bred and imported two-year-olds – non-winners of two over 5 furlongs on the round course. Wow Wow won by 3 ¼ lengths ahead of Dejae’s Boy (Omar Walker) in a time of 1:01.1.

Leading rider Christopher Mamdeen rode a triple to take the riding honours. His winners were Another Vigorous in the sixth event for trainer Rowan Mathie, Nyoka Classic in the eighth event for trainer Donovan Russell, and Synchronize in the 11th for trainer Borris McIntosh.

— Ruddy Allen