KINGSTON, Jamaica - With no trophy on offer for presentation, the 1,500-metre Open Allowance eighth was the main drawing card with the declaration of two-year-old champion Further And Beyond the main talking point. Conditioned by champion Anthony Nunes, the well-grown Blue Pepsi Lodge chestnut colt was crowned juvenile champion with three wins, including a three-length triumph in the Jamaica Two-Year-Old Stakes, from his five appearances in his debut season.
Further And Beyond’s opening effort confirmed he had trained on from two to three years with a narrow triumph in the important Prince Consort Stakes Futurity and followed up sharing victory with eventual 2000 Guineas hero Miniature Man in the inaugural staging of the Kingston.
Based on the unfamiliar training regimen it was abundantly clear Further And Beyond had suffered an undisclosed setback prior and was just over three lengths third in the 2000 Guineas, nearly seven lengths third in the St Leger to Calculus and just under two lengths third again behind Calculus in the Jamaica Derby.
In a conversation with this writer, Nunes expressed that the colt is the most talented of the 2021 Classic contending cohort and despite the challenges of less than preferred adequate preparation he felt the powerful thoroughbred had to be given the once-in-lifetime chance to compete. In fairness the trainer was confident there was unlikely to be long term damage to prospects of success beyond the Classic season.
Ridden by Linton Steadman, Further And Beyond (4/5) impressed in the Parade Ring, the Post Parade and was always prominent travelling best throughout the duration of the gallop. The time posted of 1:31.4 for the trip is not to be scoffed at as changing down gears and still nearly nine lengths clear is an ominous indicator for rivals that big prizes will be certainly in his future resume.
Run over the 1,200-metre course and restricted to maiden three-year olds, the opening event on the 11-race programme was won by the evens favourite Avenging Angel (Phillip Parchment) saddled by Ian Parsard for his 27th trip to the winners’ enclosure this season. The start of the meet was, therefore, a routine one and gave no indication that this could be a history-making race day.
Predictably, the second, contested over 1,400 metres, was won by 6/5 favourite Berry Boy ridden by former six-time champion Omar Walker for trainer Michael Thomas to secure his second of the season from 16 starts. Bred in the United States and imported in utero, the moderate five-year-old gelding was always going well and escaped from his rivals by a little more than one length at the winning post.
The third event over 1,000 metres round saw Buckaluck (Anthony Thomas) saddled by Dale Murphy winning by three and a half lengths at odds of 6/5 on her 12th appearance this year. This was the first of two wins for the joint champion and leading rider this year.
Champion apprentice Oshane Nugent’s good form continued when the Ryan Williams-trained Another Commander won the 1,000-metre straight fourth event at odds of 10/1.
In race five, apprentice Samantha Fletcher aboard 9/1 shot Cat’s Rigger won for trainer Lance Richards and at this point she probably knew that two of her remaining three mounts had good prospects of finishing in the frame.
The leading female rider had to wait only half an hour to confirm her optimism with Just Trick Me, owned and trained by Donovan Russell, leading from the start to score at 6/1 over the 1,000-metre straight course. .
The now confident Fletcher closed the card riding winning favourite Gresford Smith’s three-year-old maiden filly Honeybunch to make history as the first of the fairer sex to have the thrill of triple success on a single race day. Three decades ago, in 1991 Azel Cowie was the first Jamaican woman to receive a riding permit for Caymans Park following British horsewoman Patricia Norman who had the honour in the mid-1960s.
Dick Cardenas was the winning rider for trainer Robert Pearson in the 1100 metres seventh partnering Alexa’s Lodge (2/1) to a victory margin of a length and a quarter.
Thomas had his second on the day in the 1,200-metre tenth aboard Lure of Lucy making this the first of two for trainer Jason DaCosta.
Red hot favourite Bern Notice (Kiaman McGregor) was justifiably disqualified from first in the 1,800-metre stamina test of the ninth event and the race awarded to DaCosta’s Sir John (2/1) thus giving Cardenas and DaCosta double success.
The Training Feat Award is presented to Anthony Nunes for overcoming the challenges thus ensuring the development of Further And Beyond who was machine-like in delivering the Best Winning Gallop perfectly and Samantha Fletcher gets her first Jockeyship Award as combined margin of victories for her three winners was only two and a half lengths.
