MULLINGS

The Pick-9 eluded punters for the 10th consecutive raceday at Caymanas Park on Saturday and the carryover to this Saturday's race meet stands at a whopping $9.8 million.

With Pick-9 fever having intensified since last Wednesday, a payout in excess of $12 million looks a mere formality if it is caught on the weekend.

There was an unfortunate false start in the sixth race caused by the malfunctioning of the starting gate, resulting in the stewards declaring it null and void (refunds). In accordance with the rules and regulations, there were automatic carryovers in both the Pick-9 and Super-6, but this did not go over well with punters.

To my mind there would have been a carryover under normal circumstances, seeing that the race involving the false start was won in convincing fashion by the 42-1 outsider, BORDER PATROL with apprentice Javour Simpson aboard.

False start

It is interesting to note that the 15 horses which faced the starter all completed the 1200-metre trip and this is unusual when compared with previous false starts at Caymanas Park.

When I came into racing in 1971, there was an unforgettable case of a false start at Caymanas Park which saw the howling favourite (which was trained by Arthur Sharpe) obliging. The Jockey Club, which was in charge ofracing in those days, ordered an immediate re-run of the race, but Sharpe decided to withdraw the winning horse .

The subsequent re-run saw one of the trainer's other horses, the 99-1 outsider GUELLE DE BOIS, winning the race. Interestingly, this horse was one of those which was pulled up early in the race and did not complete the distance.

Shortly after the re-run, there was a riot at Caymanas Park, as punters vented their anger in no uncertain fashion. This resulted in injury to some punters and much damage to property.

Saturday's card produced some mild upsets in TOBAGO at 7-1, ROBIN'S BAY at 6-1 and RUMOUR HAS IT at 4-1 in the second race where odds-on favourite SCHIZANDRA was widely used as a banker to start the Pick-9.

SCHIZANDRA, however, was in receipt of an over-confident ride from title-chasing jockey Oneil Mullings and went under in a driving finish to the Paul Francis-ridden RUMOUR HAS IT. The same was true of beaten favourite CAPTAIN BONE (Trevor Simpson up), who lost the Reca Trophy feature by a neck to the Mullings-ridden FIWI EMBLEM.

- O.C.