Delmur Gold, La Bayomosa and Miss Republic each carted off one of the three feature races when the Ryan Crawford Memorial Turf and Sports Club held its first horse racing event of the year at their Alness Village, Corentyne track last Sunday.
After seeing Laura Lee in Flight take the first event of the day and subsequently the $160,000 first place prize from Fairy Tale Romance and Sir Balajee, followed by Wonder Lite and Royal Champion taking the other two races respectively, Miss Republic took over to take the first feature event.
Ridden by jockey Michael Semple, she led from start to finish to record a commanding victory over her stable mates Face de Music and World Class in that order, pocketing the $200,000 first prize.
Things appeared quiet for a while as Vanessa and Shaun Paul romped to victory in the I and J and L class races respectively, before it came down to the final two races of the day.
When they first met last year, La Bayomosa tried desperately to upset Coconut Boy but just could not find the rhythm to do so.
This time around, it was all La Bayomosa who was ridden by Semple and came from third place with one furlong to go to fly past Coconut Boy who had led up to that point, and took not only the $200,000 first prize but created the upset which eluded him last year.
Coconut Boy had to pull out all stops to ensure Lady of my Dreams did not get past him for the runner-up prize of $100,000.
The final race of the day was the showstopper for racing fans who turned out in large numbers at the “Billiards Table” like track.
From the time the horses were sent on their way, Delmur Gold indicated his intentions to take the top prize of $250,000 which was sponsored by beverage giant Banks DIH Limited by surging to the front of the field. He led all the way to the halfway mark in the race which went a distance of 1,200 meters, before runner-up Jumbo Joy took over even as his stable mate The Message found it rough to manoeuver through the eight-horse field.
As they turned for home, jockey Paul Delph called on Delmur Gold and the horse responded even as Jumbo Joy and The Message were within sight of the pole and with a late surge snatched the victory and secured the coveted first prize.
The battle for second was a tight one with Jumbo Joy winning by a neck from The Message while Annie’s Playmate, one of four American bred horses in the field, was left to settle for fourth.
Colin Ellcock of Ellcock’s Stable was adjudged the champion trainer while Drepaul carted off the champion jockey award.
The next meet at this venue is set for Caricom Day in July.
