Race Day Review – Sunday, October 29 2023
ON occasion, promoting company Supreme Ventures Racing & Entertainment Limited recognises different categories of their staff and during this race meeting it was the turn of the team of track announcers — namely Brian Rickman, Kevin Burnside, Michael Cain Jr, Anthony Tyson and Robert Darby Jr.
Therefore, the featured event on the day was the first renewal of the Caymanas Park Announcers Trophy, staged as the final of the eight events and attracting a field of 13 to contest the 1300-metre gallop. On a somewhat slow track 4-5 favourite Morimoto set moderate fractions to complete the first 1200 metres in 1:12.4 comfortably, but his lead evaporated inside the last half-furlong.
The trio of 10/1 winner Tekapunt, trained by Jason DaCosta for his stable’s third success of the day and ridden expertly by Phillip Parchment, finished fast along with runner-up Rainsville and third-placed Sunset Silhoutte to relegate long-time leader Morimoto to fourth, though he was less than a half-length behind. The top three were separated by only margins of two necks in the four-way stampede close to home.
DaCosta’s first came in the 900-metre second event, restricted to two-year-olds, with (4-5) Comehometome earning a near-seven-length victory and giving leading reinsman Reyan Lewis the opener of his double.
The second winner of the DaCosta/Lewis double was delivered by 3-2 favourite Show Girl (3-2) in race five run over 1,300 metres.
Shamaree Muir, a reinsman who spent a lot of time in Canada, rode 5-2 bet One Like It to a 10-length romp in the opening event contested over 1,300 metres. For trainer Leroy Tomlinson this was his barn’s only success of the season so far. More jockeys’ agents, owners and trainers should be looking in Muir’s direction as his experience is an invaluable asset in this business.
Race three — contested over the 1,000 metres of the straight course and restricted to three-year-old unplaced maidens to date — turned out to be not much more than a canter for Tensang Chung’s Charming Sound (6-5), ridden by Matthew Bennett for a near 11-length margin of victory.
Despite his recently achieved milestone of 60 career wins and being, therefore, no longer entitled to claim weight, Bennett continues to enjoy good support, which many riders over the decades find an impossible hurdle to overcome.
Babylon Will Fall (5-2), declared by one of the 2023’s new trainers Ricardo Brown, got the benefit of a superb effort from jockey Raddesh Roman. With her having had a good early pace, the little in form filly was ridden patiently and Roman got the timing perfectly to win by a nose in the final stride of the fourth event run over 1,000 metres round.
Ridden by champion Dane Dawkins, the most impressive performance of the afternoon was delivered by 1-5 favourite Desert of Malibu (USA), trained by Gary Subratie, to remain undefeated after three races locally.
To score by 16 and a half lengths over the 1100 metres of race seven, in a time of 1:05.2, is decidedly bad news for the expected Mouttet Mile field line-up on December 02, 2023.
The Training Feat Award is presented to Ricardo Brown for the vast improvement in temperament and form of Babylon Will Fall, a four-year-filly who in the past has given problems to load, refused to race on one or two occasions, and who has left the gates in a manner constituting a danger to rivals.
Given the degree of difficulty it is so close a call for the Best Winning Gallop between Babylon Will Fall and Tekapunt, therefore this is awarded jointly. So too is the Jockeyship Award, wherein there is nothing to differentiate between the performances of Roman and Parchment.