The inaugural staging of The Portmore, a Classic trial confined to three-year-old aspiring fillies, with a total purse of $3 million and the winner’s share at $1.65 million, the most promising to date namely, She’s A Wonder, Action Ann, Hoist The Mast, Secret Identity and Sensational Ending were declared for the 1500-metre event programmed to be the tenth and final on the card.

Hoist The Mast was declared a late non-starter while well fancied Action Ann ran as though something was amiss and hardly raised a gallop.

Naturally, a victory margin of 10 ½ lengths in the Thornbird Stakes convinced the majority of the punters that in spite of top weight She’s A Wonder was more than likely to succeed in winning for trainer Ian Parsard. Sprinting into the early lead the talented filly had her field in trouble with a five-length advantage 800 metres out and turned for four clear before being asked a serious question by rider Reyan Lewis.

Secret Identity (Dane Nelson) trained by Tensang Chung raced in second well into the straight, but it was the Jason DaCosta-conditioned Sensational Ending (Anthony Thomas) who provided the late threat to the classy front-runner. Conceding five kilos to improving Sensational Ending, and although the winning advantage was a reducing three parts of length, this has to be considered a more credible performance than the trip by She’s A Wonder.

Secret Identity, just over two lengths back in third, in receipt of three kilos from the winner and allowing two kilos to Sensational Ending, also performed with promise.

Apprentice Jordan Barrett demonstrated some useful riding skills aboard the well-fancied Joseph Durrant-conditioned seven-year-old mare Laws of the Code in the opening 1100 metres sprint on the card. In front from the gates opened, the aging grey mare insisted on drifting right to beyond the centre of the track in the straight. Barrett wisely made no attempt to correct this, allowing her to sustain her momentum on that path and she outlasted her field by three quarters of a length.

Half an hour later in the 1000-metre round second event, for his double, Barrett needed no such skill or smarts as Deep Blue Sea, posted in unbeatable condition by trainer Johnny Wilmot, never looked likely to be caught after establishing an early advantage and scored by over five lengths. The lightly raced five-year-old chestnut horse, a progeny of Blue Pepsi Lodge, was having only his tenth career start and has now tallied six wins.

Short-priced favourite JamalJames justified the odds in the 1200-metre third with Anthony Thomas aboard for trainer Gregory Forsyth, and they combined to add a second winner with Cartel also justifying long odds-on status in the 1100-metre ninth.

In the fourth over 1000 metres round Denbigh Life (Roger Hewitt) overcame a loss of time with an untidy start but ran determinedly to beat favourite Don Almighty (Linton Steadman) by the narrowest possible margins, a nose, for trainer Donovan Plummer’s third winner of the season and the first of two on the day.

With no fewer than five horses having the pace to make the headlines hugely competitive in the fifth, a race confined to fillies over a trip of 1200 metres was made to order for Spencer Chung’s Roses For Elle who has a decent turn of finishing speed. Not even a momentary traffic issue 800 metres out could derail this effort as the front-runners could not deny Dane Nelson’s well-timed finishing burst to score by a length.

Donovan Plummer’s second trip to the winners’ enclosure was facilitated by maiden Persistent One (Tevin Foster) being a marginal winner in the 1000-metre straight sixth, while the 800-metre straight seventh went to promising debutant Curlin’s Barracuda (Robert Halledeen) for trainer Anthony Nunes’ first of two.

Dane Nelson’s second winner was Acero in the 1000-metre straight eighth to confirm Nunes’ second on the card.

The Training Feat Award is presented to Ian Parsard for She’s A Wonder’s defiance of top weight in feature event The Portmore. Clearly, She’s A Wonder delivered the Best Winning Gallop and to her pilot Reyan Lewis the Jockeyship Award for executing a challenging task with the requisite skill and confidence.