The opening event, restricted to four-year-olds and upwards maidens on the eight-race programme of 72 declarations, was taken by four-year-old maiden Blitz Strike (5-2) for trainer Marlon Pusey.
Ridden by 2023 champion Reyan Lewis, for the first of three winning mounts, Blitz Strike was in front early and stayed on well over the 1,400 metres to score by four lengths.
Race two, a 1,200-metre maiden condition for three-year-olds, had a promising winner in the form of debutant Unruly Don (7-2), well-schooled by owner/trainer Oral Hayden. The well conformed good-bodied colt led and kept on well to give Robert Halledeen the first of a riding double on the card.
For the third event, a three-year-old Maiden Special Weight run at 1,000 metres round, another debutant, the nicely named Global Machine at even money favourite owned and trained by Carlton Cunningham ran gamely and without any sign of greenness to win by a short head with former six-time titlist Omar Walker at the reins.
Promising three-kilogramme claiming jockey Richard Henry aboard the also debuting runner-up to Global Machine, Bold Move (2-1), had his inexperience exposed by Walker in the desperate finish. Half an hour later Henry’s encounter with another champion had a similar outcome.
There was a close finish to decide race four, a Restricted Allowance IV 1400-metre contest. Ridden by Lewis to confirm his double success and saddled by former three-time champion Anthony Nunes, Royal Ash (2-1) was always in the leading trio.
The burly four-year-old grey filly held on by a nose to a gamely established the lead thus denying Henry’s well induced strong late run aboard Cookie Day N Night (26-1).
Both Bold Move and Cookie Day N Night were saddled by Gary Subratie, who cannot expect too much empathy as he has experienced a lot of days in his long and distinguished career when the photo finish technology was much kinder.
Linton Calder became the third practitioner on the card to enter the winners’ enclosure in the owner/trainer category in preparing six-year-old grey horse Aphelios (4-5) for an easy six-length runaway over the 1,100 metres of race five.
Leading reinsman Tevin Foster executed the uncomplicated assignment for jockey-turned-trainer Calder, whose most memorable day of his career was when he rode Alliance to win the A1 Benson & Hedges Gold Cup in 1970.
Predictably, race six with 13 declarations went to 6-5 favourite Storm, saddled by Peter-John Parsard to score by five and a half lengths over the 1,400-metre trip to seal jockey Lewis’ triple performance.
Also, easy to forecast was Howard Jaghai’s Sweet Victory (7-5), with more ability over a distance ground (1,820 metres) than any of her seven rivals, to be ahead at the finish albeit by just over two lengths.
This closed the double for Foster, the leading rider of the first quarter of the 2024 Racing Year who is off to flyer moving to 38, 13 wins clear of his closest rival Raddesh Roman still absent and recuperating from injuries sustained in a recent fall.
In the closing event Robert Halledeen enjoyed his second on the card as well with Robert Pearson’s Rejected Raja (5-1) scoring by a two and a quarter length margin over the 1,000 metres of the straight course.
