Nine hopefuls were declared for the opening event on a programme of ten races. The seven-furlong maiden event was restricted to native bred and imported three-year-olds.
US-bred Olivia D’Oro (7-5) dominated affairs to the top of the two-furlong home straight but had to repel a sustained challenge from 3-5 favourite Unbelievable Power (USA). Ridden by 2022 champion Dane Dawkins, Olivia D’Oro won by one and a half lengths. She was the opener of his riding four-timer as well as a stable triple for third-generation conditioner Peter-John Parsard.
At odds of 5-2, Boss Man was driven to the front in the closing stages of race two, run at seven furlongs. Former six-time champion Omar Walker gave a riding lesson to the incumbent Raddesh Roman on Bowmore, the even money favourite, to gain the ascendancy by three parts of a length and secure the second leg of the inevitable Parsard three-timer.
In race three, the well-conformed progressive three-year-old The Teacha (USA), ridden by Robert Halledeen and schooled by champion Jason DaCosta, won the six-furlong event to be undefeated in two appearances. Apprentice Tyrese Anderson gave another accomplished display in the saddle with Adrian Prince’s Midnight Runner (2-1), scoring by three parts of a length in condemning Roman to vain pursuit aboard Battle Angel (3-1) inside the last of the five and a half furlongs of race four.
Tevin Foster, one of the finest of this generation of riders but still without his first title, irresistibly opened a triple aboard certainty Sudden Flight (3-5), winner of five of its last six races, and no doubt aided and abetted by the regular, hugely advantageous weight allotment. Saddled by Alphonso Harris, the eight-year-old gelding won the five-furlong straight gallop by just over five lengths and was claimed by trainer Raymond Townsend for himself at the $200,000 tag.
With 133 winners in 2024, Foster lost the championship to Roman by only one. Still, that disappointment is only a vague recollection, as he continues to demonstrate, with regularity, the full range of his skill set. Over the six furlongs of race five, Princess Fianie (9-5), entered by trainer Omar Williams, won by the minutest declarable win-margin distance of a nose. This success was due in no small measure to the jockeyship of Foster to claim the second of yet another three-timer.
Dawkins returned to the winners’ enclosure for his second, with the thoroughly game and genuine seven-year-old campaigner Emperorofthecats (5-1) scoring in the seventh event run during torrential rain and limited visibility over five and a half furlongs. This Carl Anderson-bred winner of 19 races and ten placings from 41 appearances was saddled by owner Oral Hayden and had no bids for the $1.5 million claiming tag,
Race eight, the featured first renewal of the Gregory Park Sprint over five furlongs round, went to near three-length winner Money Market (9-2), saddled by Gary Subratie for Dawkins’ third. This winner of nine races from 32 starts with 16 placings, confirmed his gameness with victory over speedy front-runner She’s That Girl (4-5) by just under three lengths.
Winner of his last race, it was a little mystifying that it was 12-1 against four-year-old colt Feeling Free, saddled by Parsard for race nine. Although not in the front rank of the early gallop, Dawkins, to close out his four timer and the Parsard stable triple, induced a strong late run from Feeling Free for a one-length victory margin over the straight course.
In the closing event, Foster secured his riding triple with four-year-old maiden colt Greyt Magnum (7-1), from the stable of Ray Phillips, comfortably clear by four lengths and not breathing heavily at all after the six-furlong exertion.
