Hard-knocking four-year-old colt Chief Dissident, declared by Patrick Lynch and running at odds of 5-2, kept champion Raddesh Roman’s spate of winners flowing with a three-length winning margin in the opening event of nine on the card run over the six furlongs of the opening event.
This was to be the first of yet another riding double by this season’s leading reinsman.
Money Miser (3-1), bred, owned and trained by Fitzroy Glispie, was pointed for a tag of $1.5 million, being down from Overnight Allowance and showed its appreciation of being up against less exacting opposition to eke out victory by a neck in race two. Claimer Richard Henry worked very hard over the distance of a mile. He applied consummate jockeyship skills in the closing stages with balance, athletic ability and correct use of his whip to secure the win.
The third event, run over the straight course for maidens, four-year-olds and older, went to 3-2 bet Cherry Blossom with claimer Richie Shakes bringing her home over five lengths ahead of nearest rival in her sixth start for trainer Colin Ferguson.
Bet at 3-5 for the day’s fourth, Main Mistress (USA) from the Peter-John Parsard stable was over seven lengths better than the runner-up with 2011 champion Dick Cardenas at the reins.
Eric Haughton, one of the promising claiming jockeys of the 2024 class of the Jamaica Racing Commission Riding School (JRCRS), handled the task of getting home ahead with the Rowan Mathie entry Sir Ganga Jamuna (7-1) confidently and scored by five lengths when the five-and-a-half-furlong gallop of race five was completed.
Dane Dawkins, the 2022 titlist, helped himself to a riding double in races six and seven over six and five and a half, respectively. Schooled by veteran Enos Brown and having only his second appearance, Nuclear Jet (5-1), closing strongly against the far rails, won race six by a length and a half.
Forty minutes later, in race seven, the popular reinsman, deemed “Devastating Dane” by the race callers, had Barrington Bernard’s Wayne’scherrylinks (2-1) in front all the way to score by more than six lengths over her stable companion Uncle Baba (34-1), ridden by Sadiki Blake.
The featured five-furlong straight Harlequin Cup, run as the eighth event on the sloppy surface, was won by 4-5 favourite Legacy Isle (USA), conditioned by Rohan Crichton, well enough for a victory margin of five and a half lengths.
Roman confirmed yet another day of partnering at least two to make it 47 successes so far this season, 23 clear of former two-time second-generation champion Shane Ellis. Robert Halledeen is in third on 22 with five months of the 2025 Racing Year in Jamaica completed.
Youville Pinnock, who has far more ability than his return of only his first win from 37 opportunities this season, was aboard Anthony Nunes’ thoroughly inconsistent five-year-old mare Princess Akilah (4-1). Obviously, she relished the rain-soaked underfoot conditions and was just over three lengths in front at the finish of the nightcap, contested on the straight course by a field of
