Supreme Soul, the 2019 Jamaica three-year-old Triple Crown winner, continued his relentless stretch when he earned his eighth-consecutive victory with a pompous effort against serious top-class older horses to win The Mark My Word Open Allowance feature on Saturday (September 21) at Caymanas Park.
THE RACE
Supreme Soul shot to the lead at the off, bringing rivals around the clubhouse turn onto the main track. Supreme Soul was then taken off the pace by his rider Shane Ellis as he let Superluminal (Omar Walker) and Bruce Wayne (Jerome Innis) to take up the running. Supreme Soul accelerated with aplomb in deep stretch to beat a nagging Superluminal by 1 ½ lengths in the $1.15 million Open Allowance event over 9 furlongs and 25 yards (1,820m). The final time was a career-best time of 1:54.1. The splits were 25.4 x 49.4 x 1:14.2 x 1:39.2.
THE TRAINER’S COMMENTS
Trainer Anthony Nunes was cock-a-hoop especially by the execution of his chestnut colt by Soul Warrior - Beware Baby.
“I am very satisfied with the performance. When you come out of a three-year-old campaign, you always wonder if your horse can match up against the older horses and I cannot be any happier.
“We got a little setback as we missed the scheduled race set as a prep, but everything happens for a reason. After the setback, he came back and worked very good for him in particular last Sunday morning.
“We were shocked at how well he worked. He looked ready to go but you never know about him especially as he is not a workhorse as is well known, but when you are running against some solid campaigners such as Superluminal and Master of Hall, you will have at the back of your mind — can he manage? Supreme Soul was not running against his age group, he was running against the big boys and girls.
“I cannot be happier as I did not think that he had to work extra hard. He displayed some signs that I love. He came away running from that gate and he led without any fuss. But Shane (Ellis) backed him off leaving the 5/8ths pole and when he left the three and a half, he then indicated to his rider, ‘let’s go for the leader’. That is a dimension that he did not have earlier in the year as Shane would have had to ask him to run at the other horses. At the three and a half, he picked it up on his own thinking no doubt ‘let us get this race going’, Nunes stated.
“I just hope that he remains healthy and sound and in two weeks’ time, we will have an opportunity to run against the best horses in the Superstakes,” said the four-time winner of the coveted event.
CONCLUSION:
Although winning the Triple Crown, which is the Holy Grail in any racing jurisdiction; Supreme Soul probably gave his best-ever performance. He was smooth, he showed initiative and he was matured. Going into the showcase Superstakes, Supreme Soul is right on top of his game. Again it’s the young versus the old, and add one Toona Ciliata to the list of the young.
