Sudden Flight wins for the first time

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Ridden by Anthony Thomas, the Carlton Watson-owned, Y S Limited (1955) -bred bay colt, by Natural Selection - Makyen Joy, Sudden Flight scored his first win as the even money, top-weighted second favourite by 1 3/4 lengths on Saturday, January 23 at Caymanas Park.

That victory by the Wayne DaCosta trainee was achieved in a three-year-old maiden special weight contest at five furlongs (1,000 metres) straight.

Sudden Flight, who went down narrowly in his two previous races, had an easier passage for this first victory, with Unwritten Law (Omar Walker) experiencing a bad break at the off and never able to recover sufficiently to seriously challenge the eventual winner.

Both Sudden Flight and Unwritten Law were running for the third time and were also coming off similar close defeats, when last at the races, over the 800-metre straight course.

The trainer was encouraged by the colt’s performance.

“He [Sudden Flight] is improving steadily each time that he runs. He was lucky that the 6/5 favourite, Unwritten Law, got a bad break out of the gates and the jockey’s foot fell out of the irons. This was a plus for us. Even so, Sudden Flight dominated the race from the off and did manage to pull away favourably in the last furlong.

“All in all, it was an okay performance, but nothing special. He is a three-year-old and you can never tell how they will improve. Sudden Flight is basically bred for the five-furlong straight course and that is one of the reasons we have kept him at that distance. Even so, he is also bred by Natural Selection and, with that in mind, we can let him go a little longer later in the year and see whether he has anything more to offer,” said DaCosta.