By Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer 
Scarlet Royal, ridden by the sparingly used jockey Milton Powell for veteran trainer Alvin Carnegie, scores a 25-1 upset in the 6th race over the circular nine course at Caymanas Park on Saturday to give the jockey his first win in 10 years. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
TWO STUNNING upsets by SWEET JADE (23-1) and SCARLET ROYAL (25-1) in the second and sixth races respectively at Caymanas Park on Saturday ensured a fantastic Pick-9 carryover of $5.1 million to tomorrow's race meet.
With the mid-week meet being the last before Christmas, Pick-9 activity should reach fever pitch. Punters are expected to dig deep into their pockets in their attempts to corner the mushrooming exotic bet which has eluded the crowd for the past nine race days. As a result a payout of close to $7 million looks a real possibility.
Ninety per cent of Pick-9 bets didn't make it past the first of the nine races as SWEET JADE, the least fancied in a field of six, stormed through from early in the straight to win impressively over a distance many considered too short for her.
The five-year-old mare, who was winning for the first time this season, led home the howling favourite RED BOOTLACES (widely used as a banker) by 4-1/2 lengths but despite not being the best suited to the distance, this win by SWEET JADE was no fluke. She had not only worked well for the race but was dropped in class as well.
Indeed, SWEET JADE was quietly whispered in certain quarters. She was ridden by in-form apprentice Kerry-Gayle Robinson for veteran trainer Charles Morrissey, who is the father of the talented Glenmuir daCosta Cup striker, Steven Morrissey.
The few punters who survived SWEET JADE were unplugged in the sixth race where the little fancied SCARLET ROYAL made a sweeping move approaching the final bend to blow past long-time leader HELPMEOUT entering the straight for an emphatic win.
SCARLET ROYAL, who was disqualified after winning her previous race over a year ago, is conditioned by veteran trainer Alvin Carnegie and was well-ridden by the sparingly used jockey, Milton Powell, who is popularly called 'Smoke'.
WANTON EXTREME
Racing, in a way, is a sport of wanton extreme and excesses. At one end of the scale you have champion jockey Trevor Simpson winning race after race, or so it would seem. On the other hand you have 40-year-old Powell, who in this his chosen profession, was riding his first winner in 10 years.
Racing has really been unkind to some jockeys and this is not for lack of ability, but moreso lack of opportunity. In professional sports you have few who make it and the vast majority who struggle to eke out a living. That's life, I guess, but speaking to Powell after his rare win, I had to give him high marks for his perseverance.
The jockey explained that he rode his previous winner HEARTS ON FIRE in 1994 and stopped riding for eight years between 1996 and 2004. Although renewing his licence in April of this year, Powell only resumed riding in August.
"This win could not have come at a better time," he said. "Now I can have a merry Christmas and hope things will be better in the new year."
Outside of the two outsiders, the fancied horses held their own for the most part, with SUNSET LADY at 7-5, ZICKWARTY at 4-5 and HOOKUP at 7-5 emerging as winning favourites.
Other popular winners, not starting favourites, were CLOCK WORK (2-1) who provided top jockey 'Slicer' Simpson with his second of two winners on the card before he sits out a three-day suspension; NAVIGATOR who completed a hat-trick of wins at 4-1 in the closing race for the Eggie Sutherland Memorial; and the debutante AD INFINITUM (9-5), who was awarded the fourth race for two-year-olds following the disqualification of hot favourite SPANISH FLEET under leading all-time jockey Winston Griffiths.
AD INFINITUM provided Trinidadian jockey Brian Harding, trainer Anthony 'Baba' Nunes and Barbadian owner Elias Haloute with the second of three winners on the 10-race programme.
