THREE HORSES CLAIMED

Three horses were claimed from the fifth event and will be under new orders when next at the races. Matriarch went to trainer Christopher Pierre for owner Wayne Henry from the barn of Gordon Lewis, while Boss Izzy was claimed from Wilfred Chin by Dave Girod for himself and Steadman Curtis claimed Storm Valley from Phillip Elliott for owner Rabalac Connection. All were tagged for $550,000 each.

CODE OF CONDUCT NO LONGER A MAIDEN

After signalling that she was on the improve in the past two months, Gresford Smith’s Code of Conduct belatedly shed her maiden tag on her 12th outing when she topped a four-year-old and upwards non-restricted maiden condition race going 5 furlongs round (1,000m).

The four-year-old bay filly (Midnight Hawk –Amicable), who was scratched from her last listed assignment on December 24, due to illness, showed no such signs in her romp of the event run in honour of Junior Gordon on the Backstretch Support race day.

Breaking from the wide draw in the small seven-horse field, Code of Conduct was put straight to the front by former champion jockey Christopher Mamdeen and from there, winning became a mere formality.

Code of Conduct, the first start of the year for owner-trainer Smith, won by five and a half lengths going away, stopping the clock in a flat 1:03.0, following splits of 25.0 and 49.0 seconds. Risky Bid (Matthew Bennett), Adenosine (Roger Hewitt) and Heroine (Paul Francis) completed the frame.

CONTRACTOR DEMOLISHES LOW LEVEL FIELD

Contractor produced some credible performances in his last three outings last year, finishing third on two occasions and fourth on another, at the $250,000 claiming level.

Prior to that he paraded his worth against $400,000 and $750,000 claimers and even rubbed shoulders with horses at the Overnight Allowance level. So, when he was dropped to the lowest level in a five-year-old and upwards $180,000 optional claiming event, it raised some questions about his fitness, or lack thereof.

But those were answered when the Ryan Darby-trained eight-year-old gelding took the nine-horse field apart in the 5-furlong straight (1,000m) dash — ran in honour of Prince Cole and Leighton Simpson — courtesy of strong handling from apprentice Romario Spencer.

The Nadon-owned Contractor (Blue Pepsi Lodge –Princess Terri) was on a canter for most of the way, as he dictated terms with Boss Izzy (Christopher Mamdeen) and Matriarch (Chalrick Budhai), before pulling away in the final quarter. Storm Valley (Tevin Foster) took second ahead of Matriarch and Boss Izzy.

Contractor won by five and a quarter lengths, stopping the clock at 1:01.3. The splits were 24.3 and 47.1 seconds.

TRAINER KEFFIN MURRAY ACHIEVES 1-2 FINISH

Winning a race for any trainer is significant, but when one, particularly a fairly new conditioner, saddles the first two horses to by the post, then that will go down as a milestone accomplishment.

Such was the case for Keffin Murray, who not only combined with Ramon Nepare for another win this year, this time with Soul Amia, but also had his other starter Genealogy (Jordan Barrett) complete the exacta to sweeten the deal. Both Murray’s runners were kicked out the market in the small five-year-old and upwards restricted allowance non-winner of two races and imported maidens field, with Soul Amia going off at 5-1, while 19-1 shot Genealogy, being the second longest odds on the board, behind longshot Madam Catalina at 24-1.

However, when the gates opened, the favourite Tiz Dancer (Shavon Townsend) and Chiney Music (Tevin Foster) struggled to keep pace with Soul Amia, especially when Nepare asked the five-year-old bay mare (Soul Warrior –Miss Jay) to go approaching the final furlong.

With those left for dead, it opened the door for Genealogy to close from off the pace to secure Murray’s first one-two finish since earning his licence in 2018.

Soul Amia, who was taking on the non-winners of two level for the first time, won by six and a half lengths in 1:01.1 minutes after splits of 24.1 and 46.3 seconds. Chiney Music and Tiz Dancer faded into third and fourth, respectively.

— Sherdon Cowan