By Avenash Ramzan
Alado of Master Z Racing Stable on Sunday afternoon powered to victory in the inaugural President’s Cup horse race meet at the Rising Sun Turf Club, West Berbice.
With the prolific Colin Ross on saddle, the reigning Guyana Cup champion picked up a sublime ‘gate to pole’ win, dismantling the competition in the one-mile One Guyana President’s Cup race.
Such was Alado’s dominance that the battle was really for second place, which was taken by Jessica’s Pride of Night Eyes Racing Stable, followed by Coup D’Etat of Jagdeo Racing Stable and Looking to Heaven of Jumbo Jet Racing Stable.
Once the gates broke, the horses were off to a fast start, with Alado leading the pack, a position the Nasrudeen Mohamed Jr.-trained animal never relinquished.
As the race grew, so did Alado’s distance from the others, effectively making the feature clash a shootout for the second to fourth paying spots.
With the victory, the Master Z Stable took home the G$3M top prize and the Banks DIH trophy, which was collected by First lady Arya Ali on behalf of the stable.
Ross had earlier in the day spurred Red Star, owned by Samsundarm to victory in the J Class Open (1,400m), winning ahead of Catholic Boy (owned by Steffan Kanaya), Perfect Storm (owned by JJ Chandilall) and Cash Return (owned by Deonarine Ramroop).
In the day’s main supporting act- the President’s Cup Derby for Three-year-olds (1,400m)- it was the Jagdeo Racing Stable pair Smokin Heels and Here Comes Heidi that produced a photo finish in the 1,400m event.
After a careful look at video evidence, Smokin Heels, powered by Trinidadian jockey Dillon Khelawan, took the $1M prize, while stable mate Here Come Heidi had to settle for half that amount.
Amazing Grace of the PHVH Racing Stable and Heartland, owned by Bronson Cheefoon, finished third and fourth respectively.
The seven-race card got off to a thrilling start on a bone-dry track with Dr. Switch, owned by Sato Lall and trained by Kevin Bachan, topping the L Class Non-Earners in 2022 (1,100m), beating off the challenge of Bolt and Nut of Unstoppable Racing Stable, Is he Perfect of Mahaicony Racing Stable and Awesome Bandit, owned by Zaheer Nazirullah, in that order.
Foreign Link, owned by Dinesh Deodatt, produced a blistering run to win the K Class race (1,400m), leaving Bank Note (owned by Mario Dhanraj), War Time (owned by Sithal Samaroo) and He’s a Prince (owned by Delsie Anderson) occupying second to fourth respectively.
El Dorado Queen (owned by Patrick Adams) stunned the crowd with a winning run in the Two-year-old Guyana Bred (1,100m), storming to the line ahead of GT Boss of the Unstoppable Racing Stable, Legacy (owned by Lennard Jettoo) and Rachel (owned by Bronson Cheefoon).
Venezuelan jockey Luis Pinero powered Nuclear Fire of Jagdeo Racing Stable to victory in the G Class (1,400m), with Unsettled of Jumbo Jet Racing Stable finishing second, Marconi of Jagdeo Racing Stable third and Memories of Jumbo Jet Racing Stable fourth.
The President’s Cup was part of activities of the Cricket Carnival that is being held to mark Guyana’s hosting of the CPL preliminary games, the knockouts and final from September 21-30.
Aside from the exciting on-track action, the Jumbo Jet Thoroughbred Racing Committee did a splendid job in crowd control and getting patrons in and out of the venue, while ranks of the Guyana Police Force supervised the free flow of traffic leading to the track throughout the day.
