THE opening meeting of the final quarter of the 2026 racing season offered 10 races, including the featured Open Allowance Pinktober Trophy. This was staged as race nine and contested by a field of six over the 6½-furlong course. Originally, four-time champion and reigning trainer Jason DaCosta declared Richard Halledeen but he was later replaced by Tevin Foster to partner 8-5 favourite Pepper Stepper (USA).

For the third of four wins on the card, Foster, this season’s leading reinsman, had Pepper Stepper (USA) sprinting out of the gates to establish the early advantage, which became 5½ lengths at the finish. The progressive three-year-old colt won unchallenged, and his immediate future looks rosy. DaCosta, for his two wins on the card, had saddled one-length winner Maverick( 2-1), with Robert Halledeen, to win race six, run at six furlongs for three-year-old non-winners of two races.

Earlier, Foster had claimed victory in race three with 2-1 bet Slam Sharp, who won the Restricted Allowance III programme for four-year-olds and upwards yet to win four races. This was second-generation horseman Michael Marlowe’s 11th win from 137 starts this season.

Modern Monarch ( 10-1), a winner by half a length, was saddled by owner/breeder Carl Anderson to score the seven-furlong Restricted Allowance IV fifth event for horses four years and upwards with fewer than three wins. Foster’s fourth was actualised in the nightcap over the five-furlong straight gallop. This was with the Lawrence Freemantle-conditioned, 8-5 favourite Ability getting home by a neck in the $350K claiming contest.

Connections with Chedwrick Humor (Dane Dawkins) in the winners’ enclosure.

Race one over 3½ furlongs for short sprinters, valued at $200K, went to 12-1 bet Atomic Energy, declared by owner/ trainer Cashbert Khwalsingh, with apprentice Ramon Nepare the rider. At the same price of 12-1, Life Is Light outstayed five rivals to win race two by six lengths over the extended nine-furlong circular course. This was a Restricted Allowance V for four-year-olds and upwards yet to win two races.

Saddled by Gary Griffiths, Life Is Light’s victory was the first of three on the card for apprentice jockey Jahiem Anderson, boosted by a chance ride aboard Hit N Run (8-5) in race four for trainer Joseph Thomas to win a sixth race from 32 declarations this year. Hit N Run won by nearly four lengths for three successes from only five runs in 2025 to confirm Anderson’s second.

Anderson closed his personally memorable three-timer by two lengths aboard the Anthony Nunes Linguist (5-2) entry, in the Overnight Allowance seventh for three-year-olds and upwards run over six furlongs. In race eight, a 6½-furlong three-yearold Maiden Condition Race, saw Chedwrick Humor( 1-2), trained by FitzGerald Richards, win by a head with the expert assistance of 2022 champion jockey Dane Dawkins.

The Training Feat Award is presented to Anthony Nunes who has converted Linguist — the 2025 winner of the 10-furlong Jamaica Oaks — into a sprinter with three wins from seven starts this season, and who delivered the Best Winning Gallop on the card. Tevin Foster takes the Jockeyship Award in having to execute the full range of his skill set to secure the three-timer.