More Mouttet points on the cards for Pack Plays

PACK PLAYS, the speedy American sitting second on the list of local-based runners vying for nine Mouttet Mile spots following defending champion RIDEALLDAY’s win-and-you’re-in victory in April’s Ian Levy Cup, gets a sitter in Saturday’s Viceroy Trophy being run at five and a half furlongs instead of the usual mile and an eighth.

PACK PLAYS won two early season races, January’s Eileen Cliggott Memorial and February’s Chairman’s Trophy — six and a half, and seven and a half furlongs, respectively — jumping to 120 points, to which he added 30 by finishing second to December’s Mouttet Mile runner-up, LEGACY ISLE, in last month’s Reggae Trophy at five furlongs straight.

Only GIRVANO, 160 from six starts, has more qualifying points than five-year-old PACK PLAYS, who has never won farther than seven and a half furlongs but factored in the pace of the last two Mouttet Mile events before weakening inside the last furlong.

PACK PLAYS is caught between a Mouttet Mile rock and a hard place, unable to match two-time runner-up LEGACY ISLE’s speed, which has twice left him with no finishing power in the stretch run.

As opposed to chasing two birds in the US$300,000 Mouttet Mile bush, which could have six shippers from the United States, PACK PLAYS’ connections might very well have to transfer his points for a gate in the US$100,000 Bruceontheloose at six and a half furlongs, which could be a bird in hand should there be no foreign invader shipping in for that event from the North American mainland.

The Viceroy trophy, a furlong shorter than the Bruceontheloose, is a good gauge for PACK PLAYS with top weight 126lb going up against OF A REVOLUTION, who won last year’s race as a shipper.

PACK PLAYS holds bragging rights after beating OF A REVOLUTION by two and a quarter lengths in the Eileen Cliggott with a four-pound advantage. Sitting level at a shorter trip still has the ball in PACK PLAYS’ court, not to mention the sizzling 1:05.2 he posted at exercise last Sunday morning.

Though OF A REVOLUTION won easily on March 7, his 1:07.0 at five and a half furlongs, three and three-quarter lengths ahead of ZULU WARRIOR, wasn’t exactly a top-shelf performance, leaving him susceptible to PACK PLAYS, whose splits of 44.4 and 1:10.3 set the tone for RIDEALLDAY to smash the eight-and-a-half-furlong track record in April.