KINGSTON, Jamaica - The good form of 2020 champion apprentice Oshane Nugent (13 wins) was confirmed as he rode another two winners to remain on top of the standings in the 2021 title race.
In the opening event, the promising young reinsman used the speed of the Paul “Sleepie” Charlton-trained It’s All I at the end rather than at the beginning of the 1000-metre round sprint.
It was a welcome return to the winners’ enclosure for veteran trainer Edward “Eddie Baba” Hamilton when former Wayne DaCosta inmate Time For A Kola confirmed a new lease on life with a strong stretch run to collar long-time leader Vampire Rejection (Dane Nelson) in the 1400-metre second event.
It was also a wonderful gesture by Hamilton to facilitate the fifth career winner of seldomly engaged apprentice Shavon Townsend who graduated from the Jamaica Racing Commission Jockey School on September 29, 2018.
Both trainers of the winning horses in the two opening events were experiencing their first success in over a year, and in the third event it was Junior Small’s turn, who had just one success last year, as Lord Ashton (Roger Hewitt) confirmed his affinity to the 1000-metre straight course with a game gallop in a three-way struggle for the major slice of the purse.
Lawrence “Cummie” Freemantle has been very active recently and saddled his fifth winner since the start of the year when Born Diplomat, formerly trained by Anthony Nunes and ridden by 2019 champion Christopher Mamdeen, won the 800-metre fourth event, convincingly, by three lengths.
Up to the fifth event it was clear that the smaller barns were having a good day, as another hard-working trainer, Dennis Pryce saddled his second winner of the season when Musketoon (Devon A Thomas) scooted clear in the last 200 metres of the 1200-metre gallop.
Pryce had seven winners in 2020, 10 second-placed finishes, and six third places from only 78 starts garnering $4.7 million in purses for his owners of the small string.
Redford (Tevin Foster) won the sixth event for trainer Wayne Parchment to continue the successes of the smaller barns, with confirmation established in the seventh when Dane “The Warrior Chief” Nelson induced a flying finish from the Fitzgerald Richards-trained Ridewiththemob over 1000-metres round. Parchment and Richards won seven and eight races, respectively, in 2020 and were opening their 2021 accounts.
Trainer Fitzroy “Pumpkin” Glispie, who won eight races from 54 starts in 2019, scaled back activities in 2020 with just one win from six starts during the COVID-19-reduced racing season, but has now saddled his third winner this year. Victory by Money Monster (Youville Pinnock) in the day’s 1300-metre eighth event is a reminder to everyone that as a former top-flight jockey and trainer he is still the consummate horseman, who has saddled Classic winners in the past.
By saddling the winner of the ninth and final, two-time champion Anthony “Baba” Nunes did not rain on the parade of the smaller operations.
Nunes’ bay filly Magical Mood racing over 1200 metres in a 14-strong field of maiden three-year-old fillies gave the ever-improving Nugent his second winning mount with a hard-fought winning margin of only a neck over her nearest rival.
The Training Feat Award is presented to Edward Hamilton for the performance of Time For A Kola, who had seemingly lost its zest for racing in eight of its last 10 starts, but delivered the Best Winning Gallop and earned the Jockeyship Award for Shavon Townsend who handled a very challenging assignment with the requisite skills and confidence.
