Rideallday makes new owners happy with Mouttet Mile

RIDEALLDAY YESTERDAY avenged October’s Gold Cup loss to LEGACY ISLE, powering past his drifting rival a furlong out to hand 14-time champion trainer Philip Feanny a second Mouttet Mile triumph in three years and a win on Jamaican soil for visiting United States Hall of Famer jockey, Javier Castellano.

Sent to post as the 5-2 second choice behind Anthony Nunes’ Florida invader, NAUTICAL STAR, three-year-od RIDEALLDAY went after LEGACY ISLE and PACK PLAYS leaving the half-mile marker, racing wide from post-position 11 in the 16-horse field vying for the US$300,000 event.

LEGACY ISLE, runner-up to FUNCAANDUN last year, had left the gate sharp, blazing 23.1 for the first quarter and 45.0 for the half-mile after a brief exchange with PACK PLAYS on the lead.

Sent clear of PACK PLAYS by Emisael Jaramilo, LEGACY ISLE appeared to have flown the coop with a three-length lead swinging into the home turn. Joining PACK PLAYS on the home turn, RIDEALLDAY still didn’t appear on Jaramilo’s radar until Castellano angled his mount towards the rail.

Jaramilo, who had partnered LEGACY ISLE last year when caught at the wire by FUNCAANDUN, rallied the five-year-old in mid-track when RIDEALLDAY came calling along the rail. However, unlike the seven-furlong Gold Cup when the winning post intervened, LEGACY ISLE’s glass chin at a mile was exposed by the Mouttet MiIe for a second straight year, made worse by a six-furlong split of 1:10.0 and 1:23.2 a furlong from home.

Slowing considerably and drifting right under pressure, LEGACY ISLE surrendered to RIDEALLDAY, who charged home nine lengths clear, winning in 1:36.4, a Mouttet Mile record, two seconds faster than FUNCAANDUN’s 1:38.4 when winning by a short head last year.

FUNCAANDUN, who only made the final cut on earnings after late withdrawals by Jamaica Derby winner, I DREAM AGAIN, and last year’s derby runner-up, RUN JULIE RUN, closed for third place, worth $4m to champion trainer Jason DaCosta, slashing arch-rival Anthony Nunes’ J$8m gain with OF A REVOLUTION, who won the Bruceontheloose Sprint.

Nunes was aiming to land the feature double, the Bruceontheloose and $45m Mouttet Mile with NAUTICAL STAR for One Guyana Racing.

OUTSPED

However, NAUTICAL STAR, a sparingly raced five-year-old flown in from North America, could not emulate OF A REVOLUTION’s win, outsped down the backstretch and flat in the stretch run, finishing ninth as the 2-1 favourite, crashing Nunes’ hopes of dethroning DaCosta, champion trainer since 2022.

Local-breds, MOJITO, Jamaica Cup winner, and SENSATIONAL SOUL, this year’s 2000 Guineas champion, were hopelessly outclassed, finishing 10th and 13th, respectively, signalling the widening chasm between natives and foreigners at Caymanas Park.

RIDEALLDAY, sired by Veckoma out of the Unbridled’s Song mare, Song of Hours, moved his race record to eight wins from 10 starts, the Mouttet Mile being his first under new ownership, a seven-strong, all-female, syndicate, Cassiopeia Racing Inc, which includes Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, two-time 100-metre Olympic gold medallist and five-time world champion.

Fraser-Pryce is joined by a who’s who of local females as part-owners, a cast fit for the social pages, Jacqueline Stewart Lechler, director, Stewart’s Auto Sales Limited; Cheryl Peart, promoter Live and Direc, and wife of Mayberry Group chief executive officer, Gary Peart.

Jan Lawe, executive international health insurance adviser, Lawe Insurance Brokers, is also part-owner of RIDEALLDAY, as well as Donna Waithe, senior vice president, human resources and administration, Main Event Limited; Stephanie McConnell, mother of rally driver, Fraser McConnell, and wife of Peter McConnell, managing director, Trade Wind Citrus Limited, and Isiaa Madden, chief architect, The Pinnacle, a four-tower, 28-storey cutting-edge luxury resort in Montego Bay, the tallest residential towers in Jamaica.

Peart, executive chairman, Supreme Ventures Limited, parent company of racing promoter Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited, said the make-up of the new ownership group bodes well for local racing.

“I believe it is huge when women see other ladies as owners in the sport of horse racing. There is a difference between owning a race horse for fun and gambling,” Peart pointed out.

“A group of seven women took a risk by purchasing this horse after the Port Royal Sprint and it paid off by them winning a $45m race worth $24.9m to the new owners.”