Following Peking Cruz ‘s powerful effort to win Division One of a non-restricted Overnight Allowance event on Wednesday, September 25, 2019, connections are now in a confident spirit heading into the Caribbean Sprint Championship.

The Caribbean Sprint Championship is scheduled for this Saturday and will be contested over six furlongs (1,200m).

Ridden by Robert Halledeen, Peking Cruz ( Traditional – Patty Girl) led home rivals by 1 ¼ lengths in the five-furlong (1000m) straight event for three-year-olds and upward.

Peking Cruz got a good start and disputed the early with Adonis (Reyan Lewis), Lady Blue (Javaniel Patterson), and K D Flyer (Dane Dawkins). Coming across the dummy rails, Peking Cruz hit top gear and began to draw away from rivals, winning comfortably in the end.

Lottery Ticket (Oneil Mullings) came from behind to get second place ahead of the also fast-finishing Reigning King (Daniel Satchell). The winning time for the event was 59.0 seconds.

Trainer Richard Azan was very optimistic about the chances of Peking Cruz now going into the sprint — a race in which he had finished third last year behind Chace The Great and Mr Universe.

“He loves the five-straight, but, you know, the important thing is that he has gotten fit again and he’s free of injury now, and so let’s hope we can move forward going into the sprint next week.

“He’s coming off of a very serious injury sustained in the Diamond Mile last year when he flipped over in the gate and he hurt his back badly and had to be scratched from the event. It [the injury] has taken a long time, but today he showed that he’s ready to run again, and just at the right time, as we have the sprint coming up soon,” Azan explained.

Halledeen was even more confident heading into the Caribbean Sprint Championship.

“Well, I was very confident today that he would win. I mean, he is fit, and since that third-place finish behind Wayne DaCosta’s horses the last time, Peking Cruz is a different horse. He felt better at exercise and the only thing that was of concern was that I didn’t want him to go too fast as we have the sprint coming next week. With how he felt ,and how he is at the moment, I am confident about the sprint,” said Halledeen

—Hurbun Williams