Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer
PARCHMENT
THE PICK-9, which started anew on Saturday, had no takers at Caymanas Park and the carryover to tomorrow's mid-week meet is $1 million.
This was conducted on all nine races on the card and in the end, 32 punters with seven of nine each received consolation prizes of $3,502.50.
This can be attributed to the 13-1 upset by EMMVEEPEE in the seventh race for the Sports Journalists of Jamaica Trophy over 1200 metres and to a lesser extent the much improved CIRCLE DROME at 6-1 in the third race.
There was another mild upset in the eighth race for the Gerald Farquharson Memorial Cup, victory going to the 5-1 shot JAGMAR running on from well off the early pace.
Well ridden by claiming apprentice Phillip Parchment, the grey gelding squeezed through a narrow gap on the inside entering the straight, got the rail run he relishes so much and practically flew by long-time leader RED I, who was allowed to go too far by veteran rider Ray Gibbs and came to a walk in mid-stretch.
The Pick-6 on the other hand saw two punters with six of six collecting a cool $280,650.50. Here again EMMVEEPEE and JAGMAR stumped the crowd on a wet surface.
Despite this, the nine-race programme produced four winning favourites in UNWANTED (1-1), ANAMALANIA at 3-2, MUSTANG at 9-5 and PHYSICS BOOK at 6-5.
COUNCIL MAN who romped the closing race attracted tremendous support as the 2-1 second favourite and duly trotted up, leaving in his wake the 7-5 favourite MR. SHINE who could only manage seventh place, beaten all of 22 lengths.
One of the closest finishes seen at Caymanas Park in a long time came in the second race where UNWANTED clipped the highly fancied MYBLUBELLE by a nose.
Closing strongly on the rails, MYBLUBELLE (Joe Buchanan up) actually got her head in front in the second to last stride. However, with her head coming up and UNWANTED (Paul Francis) going down in the final stride to the wire, the latter was adjudged the winner in what could be described as the closest thing to a dead heat.
To the naked eye it seemed that MYBLUBELLE had pulled it off, but the slow motion replay proved otherwise.
