Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer
YESTERDAY'S MIDWEEK meet at Caymanas Park was marked by a stunning upset in the opening race for native bred two-year-olds.
CRIMSON GUIDE, the least fancied at 116-1 in the small field of six, stormed through a furlong out for a shock victory, silencing the fair-sized crowd which had assembled for the first race over 1100 metres. She was ridden by Wilbert Gobay for owner/breeder Devon Vanriel and trainer Patrick Fong.
The Philip Feanny-trained MITAKA, under title-chasing jockey Trevor Simpson, was installed a howling 1-5 favourite, but was not the best away from the number one post position and finished a floundering last.
CRIMSON GUIDE, meanwhile, bided her time in third position as TUNA SALOONA led at a fast clip under former champion jockey Percy Williams.
Moving into top gear from early in the straight, CRIMSON GUIDE caught up with TUNA SALOONA approaching the distance and soon powered away (outside) to beat her by 1 3/4 lengths. LIGHT MY FIRE, who was never far off the pace, stayed on for third, another three-quarters of a length away, while the well backed MASANIELLO under champion jockey Brian Harding was fourth.
A chestnut filly by Law Of The Sea out of the Schism mare Crimson Tide, CRIMSON GUIDE notched her second win from 10 career starts. She had previously won easily over 1200 metres last Boxing Day with U.S.-based Jamaican jockey Andrew Ramgeet aboard.
Interestingly, CRIMSON GUIDE is the second shock winner behind SONOFAMINISTER to connect so far this season. On Saturday, April 1, SONOFAMINISTER also won over 1100 metres, paying a whopping $4,746 to win (odds of 236-1) with Douglas Badaloo aboard.
CRIMSON GUIDE set the stage for a number of upsets on the 10-race programme. Other outsiders to score were DIXIE MILANO (Harding up) at 13-1 in the fifth race, RUN ROMAN RUN at 12-1 in the fourth, STACKA at 8-1 in the seventh and to a lesser extent, the Gary Subratie-trained RHYMAT at 3-1 with Devon A. Thomas aboard.
RHYMAT (made most) won the season's first two-year-old race for the Starters' Trophy in a driving finish from his more fancied stable-companion ROYAL HARVEST in a field of six.
Paul Francis emerged the day's top rider with two winners in SANTA ANITA GIRL (2-1) and the lone favourite to score, PHANTOM J in the 10th and final.
