Feanny
Orville Clarke, Gleaner Writer
MILLIMETRE BECAME only the third horse to earn over $10 million locally when he easily defied topweight in yesterday's Caymanas Park feature race for the Bonnie Blue Flag Trophy over the circular nine course.
The five-year-old chestnut horse from the stables of 13-time champion trainer Philip Feanny joined the 1996 'Horse of the Year' and Triple Crown winner WAR ZONE and three-time 'Horse of the Year' MENUDO as members of the exclusive club, thanks to his $341,250 share of the purse which enabled him to just barely surpass the $10 million mark.
His lifetime earnings now stand at $10,007.770 from 32 starts, this including 14 wins, 11 seconds and five third place finishes.
Bred by Teddy Richards and Alvin Garcia, MILLIMETRE started his racing career as a two-year-old in June 2000 and along the way has won such major races as the Toyota Cup as a two-year-old, 2000 Guineas, St. Leger and WITRA Classic.
However, his biggest disappointment was his failure to won the Red Stripe Jamaica Derby in 2001, a race in which he lost out to the filly AWESOME POWER in an epic duel.
Yesterday, the son of Royal Minister out of the 1990 Oaks winner Millford Sound duly completed a hat-trick of Cup race wins, having won the Legal Light Trophy over the circular nine course on April 5 and the Lady Geeta Trophy over 1200 metres on the previous Saturday.
Ridden by leading all-time jockey Winston Griffiths for owners the Classic Stables, MILLIMETRE, installed a 4-5 favourite, tracked his lesser fancied stable-companion ECSTATIC from soon after the start before going through 600-metres out in the five-strong field.
He turned for home some two lengths clear of ECSTATIC and highly fancied NEFTENGA (9-5) and stayed on strongly up the lane to beat NEFTENGA by 4 1/2 lengths.
MILLIMETRE completed a hat-trick of wins for Feanny on the 11-race programme. He also posted David Willers' two-year-old filly SARAH'S GIRL (1-5 fav) to win the Starters' Trophy, the season's first two-year-old race, as well as the fleet-footed PUREJOY (5-1) who made all in the round five overnight allowance race.
PUREJOY was ridden by former champion jockey Wesley Henry who in the absence of leading jockey Trevor Simpson (sitting out an eight-day suspension), had a second winner on the card in SARAH'S GIRL, who made all impressively. Also riding two winners was the improving apprentice Philip Clunis.
These were TIGERINTHEWOODS (5-2) and FRENCH MINISTER (13-1), both for owner Raphael Gordon and trainer Howard Phillipps.
