Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer
RIZZI LEE, running at odds of 4-5 with former champion jockey Wesley Henry aboard, romps the 10th race for the J.W. 'Judge' Hardie Memorial Cup over 1600 metres at Caymanas Park on Saturday to complete a sparkling five-timer. RIZZI LEE was saddled by trainer Philbert Watson. - PHOTOS BY RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A LUCKY punter walked away from Caymanas Park on Saturday a million dollars richer, being the only person to catch the Pick-9.
Despite the fact that there was no stunning upset, the Pick-9 is never easy to corner and with horses such as JELEN'S CHOICE at 6-1, BIRD STOW at 9-2 and to a lesser extent PITTACUS at 4-1 creating mild upsets, the end result was not surprising.
On the flip side, the Pick-9 produced four winning favourites in DIGI N'JIGGY at 1-2 in the third race, HEAD OVER HEELS at evens in the fourth, RIZZIE LEE at 4-5 in the 10th race for the J.W. 'Judge' Hardie Memorial Cup and FROMRUSSIAWITHLOVE who went wire to wire in the closing $150,000 claiming race at odds of 9-5.
Meanwhile, the Super-6 which commenced from the sixth race was cornered by 12 punters, each receiving $54,0140.50.
BUMP IN THE ROAD
The bump in the road for most players came in the seventh race where the
highly-touted American bred debutante HOUDINI AGAIN failed by half a length to catch the 2-1 second favourite MUSICAL MAESTRO who completed a double for title chasing jockey Brian Harding.
Deemed an unlucky loser, HOUDINI AGAIN, the mount of champion jockey Trevor Simpson, was not only slowly into stride, but was denied a trouble free run when attempting to advance in mid-track during the early stages.
Despite this, he fairly flew in the closing stages, but his effort proved a trifle late. One thing's for sure, MUSICAL MAESTRO will never beat him again.
The outstanding performance of the afternoon was turned in by the 2003 Superstakes winner PITTACUS in the fifth race over 1500 metres for open allowance horses.
Toting topweight of 57.0kg with Harding astride, PITTACUS raced prominently in third as CHOSEN ONE (3-1) and FORMALLY GOLD (7-2) had a battle royal for the lead in the backstretch.
Both turned for home on level terms, but by then big, bad PITTACUS was taking dead aim on the flagging leaders. He blew past them a furlong out to win impressively by three lengths from FORMALLY GOLD with the hot favourite COURT CASE (4-5) managing only fourth.
PITTACUS, who chalked up his third win from his past four starts, is clearly back to his best. Credit should go to in-form trainer Anthony 'Baba' Nunes who has exercised great patience in bringing back the five-year-old son of Pat N Jac-Vicegerent to top shape.
PUBLIC FAVOUR
Here is a horse who failed to win a race up to some 18 months after winning the Superstakes in November 2003, but the wait was worth it.
It's good to see a horse like PITTACUS coming back into public favour. As things now stand at the top level (graded stakes), there is an urgent need for horses of the calibre of PITTACUS and others such as JUST SOME THOUGHTS to end the folly that has been affecting graded stakes this season, resulting from two trainers controlling 99 per cent of the horses in what was known as 'A1' class years ago.
