Running over the five-straight course, Heiroffire (5-2), trained by owner Ricardo Brown to win the opening event, has an interesting recent history. Having not earned $160,000 over the last two seasons, she made the 2024 list of “retired horses”, formerly deemed “culled”.

On appeal, the designation was reversed and the nine-year-old mare, who has been tried too highly too often, is now competitive. Heiroffire led and scored by four lengths with champion Raddesh Roman at the reins to secure the first of his two wins on the card.

Tevin Foster needed minimal effort in the saddle as the Anthony Nunes-schooled maiden filly
Linguist (2-5) was nearly six lengths better than her closest rival in race two, run on the straight course. Over the five-and-a-half furlongs of race three, debutant I Dream Again (1-5) led and was 10½ ahead at the line. Champion and leading conditioner Jason Dacosta released another useful looking sort. The upcoming Futurities are generating interesting talking points already.

Saddled by Patrick Lynch, bet at 4-5 and ridden by 2011 champion Dick Cardenas, Pineapple (USA) was four-and-a-half lengths the winner at the end of the six furlongs of race four. Whilst Roman, for the second of his riding double, persuaded Let Him Fly (3-5), owned and trained by Greg Fennell, to be seven lengths the best over the six-and-half furlongs of race five.

Race six, a maiden event over five furlongs round and restricted to five-year-olds and upwards, was won by
Hail The Queen (7-5), partnered by claiming jockey Demar Williams for owner/trainer Ian Roberts. The mare, racing for only the third time, led and scored by just under seven lengths. Half an hour later four-year-old maiden Security Code (5-1) won the straight five gallop of race seven by three-and-a-half lengths, with claiming reinsman Shavon Townsend riding for trainer Errol Burke.

Races eight and nine were won by Bulletproofcoffee (USA) and Wall Street Trader (USA), respectively. This underscores how the non-compliance with 1977 Jamaica Racing Commission Racing Rule #33, which is unequivocal in its clause that “weights allotted must be appended based on merit and performance”, has a negative impact on wagering. This can only be corrected and achieved by the accurate and genuine classification of the horse population.

Bulletproofcoffee (1-5), an 11-length winner of her last race over the straight course, ran against inferior horses at a considerable weight advantage and won by 10 lengths with Jerome Innis in the saddle for trainer Owen Sharpe. Then in the featured six-and-a-half-furlong Ash Wednesday Trophy, Wall Street Trader (4-5), racing two levels below his ability and form, won. This, achieved easily from in front and by over five lengths easing down, with claiming Shane Richardson aboard for trainer Rohan Mathie.

The punters understand handicapping and know the importance of the weight allotted and how it is the major factor influencing their decisions. Of the nine races on today’s card, six, with odds-on bet favourites, underperformed as sales units. This is what happens typically in the 33 years of the racing product delivered in the failed claiming system. In 95 per cent of the races, the artificial classification renders inferior horses conceding weight to superior ones.

This continues as the delusional operatives of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, the United Racehorse Trainers Association of Jamaica, and the promoting company continue to perpetrate the illusion that the racing product is viable as is. As I have been pointing out over the last three-plus decades, it is not claiming tags that render the racing product unviable, it is the failure to ensure that horses of similar ability compete to drive wagering. Every possible reason has been advanced for the failure of the racing industry to flourish except a realisation that, as a gaming product, the claiming system is hopelessly flawed and, therefore, counterproductive.

The Training Feat Award is presented to Ian Roberts for the winning form shown by the very inexperienced mare Hail The Queen, who, at five-years-old, was racing for only the third time. The mare did nothing wrong in executing a flawless race for Demar Williams to be recognised with the Jockeyship Award.