Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer

FIRE TRAIN (centre), ridden by Oneil Mullings, outfinishes SPACE SAVER (left) and DR. BADOO to win the fifth race over the straight five course at Caymanas Park on Saturday. - photos by Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

With seven favourites falling along the wayside, the Pick-9 not surprisingly eluded punters at Caymanas Park on Saturday.

In the end, only one punter with eight of nine winners was able to win the attractive consolation prize of $162,552.50 in the Pick-9 which has a million-dollar carryover going into tomorrow's mid-week meet.

The Super-6, on the other hand, was cornered by one lucky punter who walked away with $1.2 million.

Biggest favourites

Some of the biggest favourites to bite the dust were BANJUHAR at 2-5 in the 11th and final race, THE SMOKER out at 2-5 in the sixth for the Aston Commock Memorial Cup, OUTFITHER (slowly away) also at 2-5 in the fifth race which went to her lesser fancied stable-companion FIRETRAIN at 7-1, as well as GO MAR GO at evens in the seventh., RIGGED TO WIN at 9-5 in the eighth and ALLIEDFORCE at 6-5 in the 10th race over 1700 metres for open allowance horses.

ALLIEDFORCE was soundly beaten into eighth place an he was hampered by the subsequently disqualified JACK SPARROW (5th) in the closing stages, the 2006 Governor's Cup and St. Leger winner was never going to impact on the outcome with top weight of 57.0kg.

Indeed, ALLIEDFORCE seemingly reserves his best for two-turn races and his below par performance in a field of live contenders such as the recent winners PURE MUD, NATURAL DESIRE and CHADMAN along with ALPHA LUPA did not surprise me one bit.

His veteran trainer Noel Ennevor alluded to ALLIEDFORCE's dislike for backstretch races shortly after his defeat.

"He dosen't seem to relish comingout of the chute but I had to run him today," said Ennevor. "The plan was to run him in the Prime Minister's Stakes over 2000 metres on Independence Day and there was no other suitable prep races for him before that," he added.

The winner PURE MUD looked vastly improved in winning by 5-3/4 lengths in the smart time of 1:44.2 and if I were the owner, I would certainly run her in the PM Stakes after this performance.

An American bred 4-y-o filly, PURE MUD was one of two winners for trainer Philip Feanny and jockey Trevor Simpson. Both seem on course to win their respective championships.

Simpson should prevail

Simpson (36) has raced into a three-win lead over closest rival Oneil Mullings (who also had a double), but with title-chasing Paul 'Country' Francis running on the spot of late and the apprentices not doing as well as a month ago, Simpson should prevail; barring injury or lengthy suspension.

Further, he knows what it takes to win the championship, having won it five times since he started riding in 1986, the most recent in 2004. The same cannot be said of the others.