THREE PUNTERS with maximum 32 points shared the $103,913.70 first dividend prize declared on last Saturday's Racing Pools game, the last under the old format.
The winners, two of whom hail from the Corporate Area, will each receive $34,637.90.
Highest amount goes to a Bull Bay punter who took his chances with $2,400. In addition to the first dividend, he claimed one first, six second and 20 third dividends to finish with a total of $38,596.50.
A Kingston 19 player actually spent more ($3,750.00) but got less ($37,833.90) than the Bull Bay punter, while the third winner who hails from Kingston 19 picked up $37,710.50 to bring down the curtain on the Pools.
A breakdown of the other prizes is as follows:
31 second dividends of $454.10 each for 31 points.
152 third dividends of $61.70 each for 30 points.
120 fourth dividends of $39.10 each for 29 points.
Sales totalled $189,620.50 on 1,035 coupons - up from $154,385.50 and 967 coupons the previous week.
FOUR WINNING FAVOURITES
The game produced four winning favourites in JUST FRIENDS at 4-5 in the first race, SIREN at 3-5 in the fourth, RUN BUZZ RUN at 8-5 in the sixth and CAPTAIN BLIGH at 4-5 in the seventh for the Frankie Frazer Cup over 1300 metres.
The latter race brought the house down, so to speak, when the Anthony Nunes-trained CAPTAIN BLIGH won in a driving finish from highly fancied ZULU PRINCESS.
It was not so much a duel between the two horses, but the race set the stage for a stirring finish between two of the most popular jockeys riding at Caymanas Park, leading all-time jockey Winston "Fanna" Griffiths aboard CAPTAIN BLIGH and champion jockey Trevor "Slicer" Simpson on the Wayne DaCosta-trained ZULU PRINCESS, who got first run into the straight.
However, Griffiths having positioned CAPTAIN BLIGH nicely into second on the outside entering the straight, mounted his challenge approaching the distance and actually pointed a furlong out. But the race was far from over at this stage as Griffiths, wailing away with the left hand stick, had to dig into his reserves to win by three-quarter length, as ZULU PRINCESS rallied stoutly on the inside.
CONTRASTING FASHION
Although overshadowed by Simpson, who had four winners, promising apprentice Dane Nelson rode two winners on the card in 7-1 shots POLISH VISION and BLUE CANTREL in the second and fifth races respectively, both scoring in contrasting fashion.
The Roy Shields-trained POLISH VISION made all convincingly in the 4-y-o and up maiden special over the straight five course.
BLUE CANTREL just held on by a head from the fast-finishing favourite LONG LONG JOURNEY to win the Reggae Boyz Road to the 2003 Gold Cup Trophy over 1100 metres.
Present at Caymanas for this commemorative race was the technical director of Jamaica's football programme, Carl Brown along with a number of Reggae Boyz - Ricardo Gardner, Jamie Lawrence, Fabian Taylor, Marco McDonald, Michael Johnson, Robert Scarlett, Richard Langley and Darren Byfield, as well as former player Paul Young, JFF treasurer Peter Reid, equipment manager Delroy Wynter and Manley Burrowes, driver.
All were guests of CTL in the Director's Room at Caymanas Park. Brown said the team will leave for the Gold Cup on July 11 for Miami where they will have their first match against Colombia on July 13 at the Orange Bowl Stadium.
- Orville Clarke
