Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor
Former champion jockey Percy Williams seems mighty pleased as he guides ALLIEDFORCE towards the winners' enclosure after winning the 66th running of the $2 million Lotto Classic for the Governor's Cup at Caymanas Park on Saturday. The Noel Ennevor-trained 3-y-o colt won the prestigious 2,000-metre race by 1-1/2 lengths at odds of 6-1. - RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
PLAYERS OF the two popular exotic bets, Pick-6 and Pick-9, had a field day at last Saturday's Lotto Classic raceday at Caymanas Park.
The 12-race card which featured two Pick-6 bets, produced over 1,000 winners. The opening Pick-6 which had a carryover of $1.6m attracted a lot of players who flocked to the track and the offtrack outlets before the noon post time. Lady luck smiled on 1,035 of them as the first six winners proved very easy to spot.
Favourites won five of the six races. The sequence was only broken in the second race where VALID REASON won as the 4-1 second favourite. The other winners were FIREWORKS at 1-2 in the first, UNTOUCHABLE at 1-1 in the third, RAMADA who won the fourth at 3-5, the 1-5 shot SHAKE YOUR BOOTY in race five and 2-1 favourite MOST WANTED in the sixth.
Jockey Dane Nelson was aboard the last two. The promoters paid out $3,444,997.50 with each winning voucher worth $3,328.50.
Only the strong survived in the second Pick-Six as just one favourite was unsaddled in the winners' enclosure. QUIET STRENGTH, a five-star banker at 1-9, could only manage third in race seven, the Lotto Sprint over 1100 metres for Grade One sprinters. RAMPAGE, the 3-5 favourite for the 2000m Lotto Classic (11th race) finished out of the money placing fourth behind 6-1 upsetter ALLIEDFORCE, RANSOM MAN at 17-1 and 7-1 shot HIDALGO. Four lucky punters got six of six and pocketed $192,314.50 each.
The Pick-9 which ran from race five to race 12 was also difficult to spot. In the end two punters carried home $667,259.50 each. The longest shot of the Pick-nine winners was ALLIEDFORCE. The Noel Ennevor-trained colt who ran a big race behind RAMPAGE in the 2000 Guineas was allowed to go off at very generous odds while two other inferior horses, his stable companion THE SMOKER and the Trevor Simpson-ridden CALABASH BAY, went off at 4-1 and 9-2 respectively.
ALLIED FORCE, by Market Rally - Royal Colours, is bred to stay and even with the handicaps level, will be hard to beat in the June 3 Jamaica Derby.
The Hi-Five which was conducted on four of the 12 races also produced two handsome dividends. With PRODIGAL SON taking fourth spot at 75-1, the Hi-Five on race six was a whopping $148,169. It was even bigger in the Lotto Classic as RANSOM MAN and fifth pace PRINCE OF LAW (62-1) were hard to spot.
