- IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTGRAPHER
Neutralizer (left), ridden by Allen Maragh, getting the better of Jig Young (right), with Robert Stewart aboard and Cat Legend (Dal Brown) to win the 11th race over 1400 metres by a length and a quarter at Caymanas Park on Boxing Day. Neutralizer went off at odds of 4-1. Jig Young beat Cat Legend by a nose for second.
Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer
ANOTHER SEASON of racing comes to a close at Caymanas Park today with a well-supported 10-race programme featuring the $1 million Sweet Ruckus Trophy over 1400 metres for native and imported two-year-olds.
Also on the card is the restricted allowance I for the Rimsky Trophy over the circular nine course to be contested by nine starters.
Nine have also been declared for the Sweet Ruckus Trophy and indications are that the owners' championship will be decided in this race with Alexander Haber having two runners and his arch rival Elias Haloute having one respectively.
Haber's representatives are the speedy TASSY'S WHIP and DIGITEC, both from the stables of newly-crowned champion trainer Wayne DaCosta. Haloute will pin his hopes on LA PRESIDENTA, who showed promise on her recent debut when installed a howling favourite.
Significantly, LA PRESI-DENTA is one of three challengers from the stables of Anthony 'Baba' Nunes. The bang-in-form trainer also saddles TALLAWAH, the mount of newly-crowned champion jockey Brian Harding, as well as QUEEN TAMARA with U.S.-based Jamaican three-time champion jockey Andrew Ramgeet aboard.
WIRE TO WIRE
TASSY'S WHIP, who shoulders topweight of 57.0 kg. and four-time champion Charles Hussey, is coming off a recent win over 1200 metres when going wire to wire. She held on grimly with Harding aboard to win by a neck from the very useful DATING with PACIFIC EXPRESS third, and the additional furlong should not pose a problem in present company.
TASSY'S WHIP has worked well in preparation for this race and despite asked to give away lumps of weight, will have to be caught. She is the most experienced in the line-up and this should count for something in the closing rush.
Haloute's LA PRESIDENTA was backed as if defeat was out of the question in a recent maiden condition race over 1200 metres, but she missed the break and found PACIFIC EXPRESS too hot to handle. Still, she would have gained from the experience and could make it close.
The fact that Harding has elected to ride TALLAWAH (who is co-owned by Haloute) over LA PRESIDENTA and QUEEN TAMARA is indeed instructive, as the chestnut filly by Pangur Ban out of Rhythmical Rain has moved well at exercise in preparation for this trophy race.
Given the weight allowance from the imported horses, TALLAWAH, who seems ideally suited to the distance, should come into her own and win from TASSY'S WHIP, PACIFIC EXPRESS and LA PRESIDENTA.
Other firm fancies on the card are TWEEDSIDE, who finished fourth in the Harry Jackson Memorial Cup on Boxng Day to win the Rimsky Trophy under Brian Harding, GOING-TOKANSASCITY in the 4th, METEOR MAN to catch RIZZI LEE in the 5th, HEAD OF STATE in the 8th and SHE'S A DIAMOND over ROYAL CONTROL in the 10th.
