WEEKEND JAZZ SHOWS GOOD PROMISE
Three-year-old chestnut colt Weekend Jazz (Adore The Gold – Kipling Weekend), running with first-time Lasix, showed more than just average ability.
Weekend Jazz won a maiden condition race down the five-straight (1000m) course.
Weekend Jazz, who was second on debut in March, was in a serious mood winning by nine lengths in quick 58.2 seconds under tender handling towards the end of the native-bred three-year-old event.
The Byron Davis trainee got a good break from the number 11 draw and was matching speed on the front end with City Counsel (Oshane Nugent), Diamond League (Shane Ellis), Chennai Express (Dane Nelson) and Powerman (Robert Halledeen).
After sorting themselves out coming across the dummy rails, Weekend Jazz assumed pole position of and began to draw clear from rivals with impunity ahead of Chennai Express and City Counsel in that order.
BREAKING STORM WINS AGAIN
After a runaway victory over 5 ½ furlongs (1,100m) at the races last week, the Neive Graham-trained Breaking Storm returned a week later to knock over rivals in a Restricted Allowance event over four furlongs (800m) straight.
With Paul Francis in the saddle, Breaking Storm left the starting gates in good order and was held behind the leaders headed by Blu Attitude (Dane Dawkins).
In the final furlong (200m), Breaking Storm, along with Big Dream (Anthony Allen) came through on the inside rails to challenge Blu Attitude (on the outside) for top honours.
Breaking Storm carried the momentum through and was able to nip Blu Attitude to win by a neck. Big Dream was 3 lengths adrift in third place —the final time 48.1 seconds.
K J EXPRESS COMES GOOD DOWN IN CLASS
After a string of poor performances at the Overnight Allowance level, K J Express took several drops in class and was just able to place another notch in the win column.
K J Express won an Optional Claimer carrying a $550,000-$500,000 tag going five furlongs round.
Jockey Dane Nelson was asked to do riding honours by trainer Anthony Nunes, and K J Express was off to a good start as the roan gelding raced in third place behind Golden Destiny (Tevin Foster) and Storm Princess (Dane Dawkins).
Approaching the distance, K J Express surged through between horses, hitting the front full of running. With a couple of diamond change of holds and cracks of Nelson's whip, the vigorously ridden K J Express held on under powerful drives to the wire, by a neck from the fast-finishing Mr Universe.
Mr Ambassador (Christopher Mamdeen) finished in third place.
The final time was 1:01.0. It was the fourth time K J Express was winning at the distance.
NO PROBLEMS FOR SWEET DESTINY
Sweet Destiny, trained by Ryan Darby and ridden by apprentice Daniel Satchell, obliged as the 1-2 favourite in an Optional Claiming ($250,000-$200,000) spread over five furlongs straight.
D M Cutie (Jordan Barrett), Sweet Destiny, Boss Izzy (Oshane Nugent), and Rohan’s Cattleya (Anthony Thomas) showed early speed.
In the final furlong, D M Cutie and Sweet Destiny drew clear from with the latter going on to win by five lengths in a time of 1:00.1. D M Cutie finished second place and Boss Izzy third.
It was Sweet Destiny’s second win for the season, Darby’s eighth and Satchell’s third.
SEVEN HORSES CLAIMED
The claiming box drew some attention as seven horses were through on the nine-race card.
Steven Todd claimed Mr Universe for owner Agent Deeks from Wayne DaCosta, while Michael Francis claimed K.J Express for owner Kevin Whitter from Anthony Nunes from the second race. Both horses were claimed for $550,000 each.
In the fourth race, Phillip Lee claimed Stanislaus for owner Donovan Plummer from Gregory Forsyth; Junior Panton claimed Buckaluck for owner Derrick Satchell from Renex Burrell and Dennis Lee claimed Balazo for Himself from Ryan Darby. All these horses went for $350,000 each.
Errol Burke claimed D M Cute for owner Fitzroy Glispie for $250,000 from Gordon Lewis and Marlon Anderson claimed Sweet Destiny for himself from Ryan Darby, also for $250,000 from the ninth.
