KINGSTON, Jamaica - Runaway Algo chalked up a fourth-consecutive victory when he brushed aside a competitive assembly of sprinters including last year’s top male sprinter Mahogany.
Runaway Algo, racing in the Overnight Allowance grade for the first time, won the 5 ½-furlong event in a fast time of 1:05.2 at Caymanas Park on Monday, April 18, 2022.
Well-tuned by trainer Dale Murphy for the contest and handled adroitly by the one-time jockey champion Christopher Mamdeen, Runaway Algo won by 1 ½ lengths with Mahogany second, half a length ahead of I’m Fred (Phillip Parchment), who took the third spot.
When the starter sent the 14 starters on their way, Mamdeen wasted no time in pushing Runaway Algo to the front, as the rest of the field played catch up. Mahogany (Dane Dawkins), who was making his seasonal entrance, after two furlongs then drew closer to Runaway Algo on the outside. With these two locked together, the others in the race were left flat-faced with no reasonable chance of winning.
When Runaway Algo and Mahogany entered the straight for the final two furlongs of their personal battle, there wasn’t much to choose between the two. With about a furlong to go, the class of Runaway Algo came to the fore. The American began to pull away leaving Mahogany behind. Runaway Algo recorded fast splits of 22.4 x 45.3 seconds. This was Runaway Algo’s fourth-consecutive win from five starts and is now qualified for Open Allowance.
There was no happier individual at Caymanas Park on Easter Monday than Dale Murphy.
“Runaway Algo is a very nice horse. He trained well coming into this race and we are not surprised by how well he continues to perform, especially this time around. Again, this horse is special, and I am happy and pleased to have him under my care.
“His competition today (Easter Monday) was mainly the accomplished 12 horse Mahogany, who was coming off a six months break or so, and we figured that he may not be as sharp as he should be and we were at the track each day getting Runaway Algo truly prepared as it was our view that our charge would have been able to overhaul Mahogany at this trip and this is exactly what happened.
“Coming along the backstretch when his rider (Mamdeen) put away his whip, it was just an occasion to keep him together, for him not to go too fast too early, but when he (Runaway Algo) was tested by Mahogany, he had to stick with him and that pace was pretty fast and that is why it ended in a testing time of 1:05.2 which was good.
“After this performance, I think he will be promoted to a higher class of Open Allowance and we just have to try and keep him healthy, fit and sound and take it from there. I get an opportunity to thank those who assisted in giving me the golden opportunity to train a lovely horse such as Runaway Algo at this stage in my career, for he is a nice horse in the making,” a visibly jubilant Murphy said.
