Ainsley Walters, Staff ReporterROYAL TIARA, hunting a second straight win, could help trainer Philip Feanny rebound after REAR ADMIRAL lowered the colours of THE VICE and A KING IS BORN on Thursday.
The improved two-year-old colt looks the horse to beat under Ramon Parish in today's 1400-metre Sweet Ruckus Trophy.
Despite being unproven at the distance, the bay colt has good early pace and has proven that he can be rated down the backstretch for a home run.
Of ROYAL TIARA's six rivals, Kenneth Mattis' JERICHO and Anthony Nunes' American-bred filly, MILLENIUM PRINCESS, seem to be the main threats. Similar to ROYAL TIARA, both were winners last time out, MILLENIUM PRINCESS on debut, but Feanny's colt has looked most impressive at exercise since.
JERICHO hasn't done much in the mornings since wearing down ZAHBO at 1400 metres a month ago whereas MILLENIUM PRINCESS' last gallop was upside OUTSWINGER, beaten by his stablemate in a five-and-a-half furlong spin Monday morning.
ROYAL TIARA, who showed OUTSWINGER a clean pair of heels from start to finish at 1100 metres when she won two weeks ago, galloped 1:00.4 on the round course Saturday morning and returns nine pounds lighter than the Brian Harding-ridden MILLENIUM PRINCESS.
As for stamina reservations, MILLENIUM PRINCESS must be as suspect as ROYAL TIARA, having never gone beyond 1000 metres straight.
There's no doubt that JERICHO stays the distance but he's definitely not as quick and Kenyatta Davis might have to ask him to come off his bridle too soon to go in chase of MILLENIUM PRINCESS and ROYAL TIARA down the backstretch.
Parish has bounced back to form in recent weeks, even picking up a couple good rides from Feanny. With ROYAL TIARA, he need only stalk MILLENIUM PRINCESS before inching closer leaving the three.
ROYAL TIARA has not only shown good speed but probably ran his best race behind classy stablemate THE VICE last month when he stayed just off OUTSWINGER chasing in vain before moving in for second-money. When he saw OUTSWINGER in their next race he hopped to the front and went wire-to-wire.
Meanwhile CLASSIC ACCOUNT, hindered at the start by DEJA VU two weeks ago at 1000 metres straight, should rebound with a victory in the Paul Newman Memorial at a mile for $250,000-230,000 Claimers.
The fit five-year-old gelding closed seven lengths for third behind RESTLESS PEGASUS after the interference and will prefer the more relaxed pace at a mile. In his previous race on the round course he was a runaway winner under Trevor Simpson, beating return winner MAHOGANY by five.
CLASSY TANYA with Shane Ellis and JIG YOUNG under Andrew Ramgeet are his main threats but Clive Lynch makes few mistakes and should get the job done aboard CLASSIC ACCOUNT, who has been off the board only once since September.
