Gallant Groom runs away with ‘Big Sub’ trophy

Champion trainer Jason DaCosta and leading rider Tevin Foster dominated yesterday’s start of the three-day Heroes Holiday meet, combining for a three-timer on the nine-race card including a runaway victory by American GALLANT GROOM in the Errol ‘Big Sub’ Memorial Trophy at a mile.

GALLANT GROOM closed a hat-trick of wins from four starts by zipping past NEO STAR four and a half furlongs out, turning the overnight allowance event into a procession, landing the third event by 25 lengths in a fast 1:36.1, confirming the out-of-class form he had shown in his two previous races after a narrow loss on debut.

United States-bred GALLANT GROOM won at odds of 3-5 for Foster and DaCosta. The pair followed up in the fourth with MONEY MONSTER, who outbattled LABAN in an optional $500,000 claiming event at seven and a half furlongs.

MONEY MONSTER’s win, running down LABAN with reigning back-to-back champion Raddesh Roman, marked the first of two thrilling finishes Foster won against his rival, who had beaten him by one winner for the 2024 rider’s title, landing the last race of the year.

Foster and Roman also clashed in the sixth event at five furlongs straight, the leading rider rousing DaCosta’s EYE OF THE TIGER to stave off Roman astride MANOLETTI MAJESTIC, who was afterwards relegated to third by GIVING THANKS.

Foster survived a stewards’ enquiry aboard EYE OF THE TIGER to push his tally to 82 winners, 13 clear of Roman, whose fortunes took a turn in the race for the jockeys’ title after being sidelined for approximately a month following a fall from MIDNIGHT GALAXY late July.

DaCosta maintained his relentless march towards a fifth straight trainers’ title after starting the day $19 million clear of Anthony Nunes in stakes won from 396 starts this season.

Lightweight rider Tajay Suckoo and claimer Eric Haughton rode two winners apiece. Suckoo rounded rivals astride ROUND THE TWIST in the opening event, pouncing four-wide to give owner Colin Elcock his first win as a trainer.

Haughton won back-to-back races, splitting ROCK-OLA and weakening favourite BRAHMA BULL in the seventh astride 7-2 chance LIFE IS LIFE before returning in the eighth to produce 5-2 shot RAPIDA in mid-track a furlong out, going past the battling pair of SECRET MISSION and PRINCE DANIEL, handing trainer Dean M Cooper his first career win.

The Heroes Holiday meet continues this morning, another nine-race card, running off at 11:50, featuring the Vassell ‘Jolly Man’ Najair Memorial at five and a half furlongs in which DaCosta’s local-bred sprinter, CALIFORNIA CROWN, winner of the 2000 Guineas in 2024, squares off with mainly foreigners led by FIT TO FIRE, an American four-year-old gelding.

FIT TO FIRE, who won back-to-back races at Tampa Bay and Gulfstream Park in Florida, had placed second on his September 26 local debut to fellow United States-bred OF A REVOLUTION, last year’s winner of the grade-one Bruceontheloose Trophy.

The Reggae 6, which will have a mandatory payout tomorrow, opens at the first event with a single-winner bonus of $15.78 million this afternoon following yesterday’s $12,371 payout to winning tickets.