KINGSTON, Jamaica Duke, a tough five-year-old grey horse among the field of six, sat behind the scorching speed biding his time to strike.
With two furlongs of the 5 ½ furlongs remaining, Duke in rapier-like fashion struck with a decisive burst to land the Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL) fourth Anniversary Trophy. This race was a three-year-old and upwards contest for Open Allowance/Graded Stakes horses which was run on Saturday, March 6, at Caymanas Park.
Owned by The Success Farms and trained by Gary Subratie, Duke, ridden by Dick Cardenas as a 7/2 betting option, was winning at this level for the first time and did so by 1 1/4 lengths in a time of 1:05.4 with accompanying fractions of 22.2, 45.3 seconds.
Patriarch a 7/5 chance, with Youville Pinnock up, who led from the off, finished second. Trevor’s Choice going some 2.0 kg overweight for Shane Ellis finished third, with the 5/2 favourite God of Love completing the frame with Dane Nelson up.
Subratie, in a postrace interview, expressed the view that he was pleased with the final outcome.
“With the speed expected on the headline in the race, I did not want the jockey at any part of the race to rush Duke.
“I just told him [Cardenas] to knee him down. Do not rush him as there was much speed up front, but ride him in the final two furlongs and made sure that he put the whip in his left hand in the final furlong,” Subratie said.
Commenting on the future of Duke, Subratie added: “There is a 7 1/2 furlongs race in the next couple of weeks and we have to wait to see how he [Duke] comes out of this race, I think we will enter him in that race.”
