Owner – breeder Desmond Lewis as happy as can be
KINGSTON, Jamaica - A Gift From Ben produced a noteworthy performance to score her first victory in a Maiden Condition race for fillies only on Sunday, February 20.
Racing over 1,100 metres, the chestnut filly by Here Comes Ben (Youville Pinnock) of Sage’s Gift Box won the event by 4 3/4 lengths. Bred and owned by Desmond Lewis, A Gift From Ben defeated 9/2 chance She’s Fantastic (Omar Walker) in a time of 1:08.1 seconds. Supporting split fractions were 21.3, 47.3 seconds. The even-money favourite Mila’s All That (Dane Dawkins), running for the first time, finished third.
Owner Lewis enjoyed earlier success on the programme with Generational, but the win by A Gift From Ben took him to another level of joyousness.
“This victory brings immeasurable pleasure. Putting it simply, I am overjoyed by the prospect of continuing the racing tradition with a home-bred among the line-up. I bred A Gift From Ben from a horse that I owned before. Sage’s Gift Box then presented a racing gift in the filly A Gift From Ben, who ran well and won on her fourth attempt.
“In her previous races she was never worse than third before going on to release the maiden tag. After we entered her in this race, the trainer was pretty confident following his bullet work in one of his preparatory spins. We then slowed her down with a stroke work just to tighten up as she has run in much better company before this, and we were very confident that we were going to be victorious .
“I am particularly pleased by the effort put forward by the trainer Rowan Mathie. He did a marvellous job despite being under pressure for not registering wins as regularly as his training skills dictate.
“He is a wonderful trainer and we have had many successes with him. We believe in being loyal to those who represent us well,” Lewis said.
