By Orville Clarke,
Freelance Writer
ONE OF TWO: The 9-1 chance BRAINSTORMING, one of two winners for jockey Richard Mitchell and trainer Gresford Smith, wins the sixth race ahead of DAME MARGOT (Winston Griffiths) at Caymanas Park on Saturday. - Dennis Coke
A Portmore punter with maximum 32 points won the entire first dividend of $262,556.80 declared on last Saturday's Racing Pools game.
Taking his chances with $1,600.20, the big winner also secured four second and seven third dividends to tip the $300,000 mark.
A breakdown of the other prizes are as follows:
# Six second prizes of $5,973.50 for 31 points.
# 20 third dividends of $1,194.70 for 30 points.
# 19 fourth dividends of $628.70 for those punters finishing with 29 points.
# Sales totalled $482,707.00 on 2,219 coupons -- up from $385,046.10 and 1,921 coupons the previous week.
On a day when the stable-companions TRAFALGAR at 13-1 and BRAINSTORMING at 9-1 provided the upsets, it was touch and go (to many) whether 32 points had done the trick, but in the end only one person was good enough to attain same.
I for one was surprised that full points was achieved by only one person, as both TRAFALGAR and BRAINSTORMING, though not among the fancied horses, were conceded chances in my book. That they were trained by Gresford Smith only served to underscore the point.
Smith, in fact, obviously came to raise hell. In addition to posting two winners, he had two close seconds with DIXIE INFERNO and SILVER WEDDING in the first and last races, respectively.
The game produced four winning favourites in ONE SON at 1-2 in the first race, BONNIE'S FLAG at 4-5 in the second, RESTLESS PIRATE at 3-2 in the sixth and HAWK DEH NEAR at 8-5 in the closing race, round three of the Craven 'A' Claiming Champs. The other winner, TRIBECA (2-1), was also popular in the fourth where his only serious rival was the off time favourite MARIA-MARIA who had to settle for second.
ONE SON led on well to win in a driving finish from DIXIE INFERNO. Although the fleet-footed six-year-old gelding was definitely the one to beat, he was not widely used as a banker owing to a recurring bleeding problem.
BONNIE'S FLAG, ridden by leading jockey Wesley Henry who is under pressure from arch rival Ramon Parish in the championship race, went by a stopping LADY LASCO a furlong out to win the next race quite easily. This four-year-old daughter of The Medic provided both Henry and in-form trainer Richie Todd with their 41st win of the season.
Tood, in particular, has done remarkably well with basically claiming horses.
Already, he is well on target to surpass the record for most wins in a season (89) set by reigning champion Philip Feanny last year.
TRAFALGAR, ridden by hot apprentice Kerry Perry who is riding even better than Parish of late, ran on strongly to win the third race in a blanket finish involving four horses.
The six-year-old gelding won by a nose from 12-1 chance HEY MAN with TALENTED TRAVELLER (9-1) and the marginal 7-5 favourite KAZETO finishing a further half a length adrift in third and fourth places, respectively.
Course specialist CHAMPION GIRL (3-2), bidding for a hat-trick of wins, threw in a clinker to finish down the track (lame). But not so fellow course specialists RESTLESS PIRATE and HAWK DEH NEAR who duly justified favouritism in their respective races.
