Race Day Review – Saturday, February 17, 2024
A total of 71 runners were declared for the nine-race programme, which continues to highlight the slow start to the 2024 season, however things should improve going forward.
The opening event of nine, a maiden contest restricted to three-year-olds run at 1000 metres round, was won in a victorious debut effort by King’s Crown (1-5), saddled by Steven Todd, and was the first of a riding double for leading reinsman Tevin Foster.
Former five-time champion Trevor Simpson, whose record of 172 races won in the 2002 season is unlikely to be surpassed, was aboard 4-5 favourite
Sabina, trained by Owen Sharpe, to win the 800-metre-straight second event. The six-year-old bay mare, racing for only the 10th occasion, worked hard to beat her nearest rival by one length.
Saddled by Rowan Mathie and bet at 7-5, Crimson (Bebeto Harvey) joined the ranks of the all-too-frequent runaway winners on show at Caymanas Park each race day. Leading from the 200-mark, the eight-year-old former top-class campaigner went on to score by just over 11 lengths, easing down at the end of the 1,500-metre gallop of race three.
Trained by Ricardo Brown, KP Choice (7-5) won race four — run at 1100 metres — by a conservative seven lengths, outclassing his rivals from in front to present Robert Halledeen with the first of his two wide-margin winners on the day.
At the end of race five, to confirm his riding double, Foster returned to the winners’ enclosure following a six-and-half-length romp over 1200 metres by
Edina Marsh (1-2), conditioned by Lydia Anglin.
Ridden by Matthew Bennett, trainer Tensang Chung’s Smartasset (4-1), with a late burst of finishing pace, scored ahead of a very competitive a field of 10 in the day’s sixth over the 1,000 metres of the straight course.
Smartasset has now scored in three of his four career starts, and with his two triumphs prior executed over the 800-metre straight course demonstrates a distinct affinity for the trip.
In the featured Reggae Month Trophy, run as race seven, Gary Subratie’s improving four-year-old sprinter Sensational Move (8-1) was five lengths the best, with 2022 champion Dane Dawkins executing the riding honours. Stable companion of the winner Desert Of Malibu (USA), the 2-5 favourite reared badly as the starting gates opened for the 1000-metre straight event and made no impression in only managing to finish fourth.
Christopher Mamdeen, the 2019 champion jockey, increased his career tally to 199 successes aboard Captain Philip (3-1), with the frequently raced maiden colt outstaying his closest rival by six lengths over the 1400 metres of race eight for trainer Gary Griffiths, following 23 previous attempts.
In the nightcap Halledeen confirmed his double success aboard Brown Skin Girl (7-5), turned out in unbeatable condition by champion Jason DaCosta in returning a win margin of over eight and a half lengths to emphasise the constant overmatching of horses in most races.
The Training Feat Award is presented to Tensang Chung for the performance of Smartasset, a strongly built and fairly talented but difficult-to-train colt who executed the Best Winning Gallop for Matthew Bennett to claim the Jockeyship Award for skills displayed when his mount suffered mid-race interference.