KINGSTON, Jamaica - POSITIVE ID broke smartly from the one draw and was earlier than he has ever been in his races to date. He then outstayed rivals in the native-bred four-year-old and upwards (non-winners of four) call run for the Heroes’ Day Stakes Trophy on the nine-race holiday card at Caymanas Park on Monday, October 17, 2022.
Positive ID, the joint 9/5 favourite trained by Michael Marlowe and ridden by in-form jockey Reyan Lewis, established his first career trophy success by winning the 1600-metre event by 3 ¼ lengths. The winning time was 1:39.4 seconds by aiding split fractions of 24.2, 46.4, and 1:11.4 seconds.
Classical Orb, the American-bred stayer who was ridden by champion jockey Anthony Thomas and trained by Colin Blair, finished second as the joint 9/5 favourite with Iannai Links (Dane Dawkins) finishing third of the seven runners.
Marlowe was bursting with excitement in his post-race interview.
“Oh yes, he (Positive ID) is lovely. We gelded him and gave him a little time to heal, and when he came back he appears to be getting better and better, and up to this point, I am pleased with his improvement. He is a Bern Identity. If you remember the horse Potcheen a previous winner of the Gold Cup, Positive ID is bred along the same line to go long and as they turn four years and older, they get will improve extraordinarily.
“The breeder, Mr Parsard, had alerted me by saying, ‘Mikey, as this horse gets older, he is going to get better with time,’ and it is playing out just like that.
When asked how prepared and confident he was for the challenge today (Monday, October 17, 2022) , the response was one of confidence.
“The jockey who rode him understands him reasonably well and he said ‘I am going to have him warmed up thoroughly then I am going to put him in front, and they will not get away from me today. He is in the Overnight Allowance company now and there is an 1820-metre race in a couple of weeks from now. We are going to test them and, should we win, we will continue to keep him active. We do not have many horses but what we have under our care, we get the best out of them,” Marlowe declared.
