Wow Wow good pick for Cash Pot Trophy
Published:Saturday | October 26, 2019 | 12:17 AMAinsley Walters/Gleaner Writer
LEADING owner Carlton Watson will be playing catch-up after this afternoon when Michael Bernard’s WOW WOW strolls to what should be an easy victory in the six-furlong Cash Pot Trophy, which has a winner’s purse of $1.7 million.
Watson, the main owner in champion trainer Wayne DaCosta’s barn, has LADY BLUE waiting in the wings in the eighth race, immediately after the Cash Pot Trophy, a $546,000 winner’s payout, which should about halve Bernard’s lead to roughly $500,000 at the end of the afternoon.
LADY BLUE came home willingly on last, surprisingly from way off the pace, to secure third behind another Watson runner and stablemate, MR UNIVERSE, who was cut down by none other than Bernard’s MY SISTER in the Vassell Najair Memorial on October 12
Though Watson extended his stakes lead from $69,700 to $737,100 over the Heroes holiday two-meet carnival, WOW WOW, who has won his last four starts and looking better the farther he goes, looks set to almost single-handedly hand Bernard his first owners’ title.
Apart from the bounty that will come with landing the Cash Pot Trophy, November’s Pick-3 Super Challenge and December’s Jamaica Two-Year-Old Stakes, WOW WOW also qualifies for the $1 million bonus awarded for the three-race series sweep, having passed through the Yearling sale as a $4 million buy-back in 2018.
The bay colt, by far, has been the most impressive juvenile seen this season, winning his last two races by double-digit margins, embarrassing once highly thought of ENGLAND’S ROSE in the Bearings and Accessories Trophy, should sweep the Supreme Ventures Limited Two-Year-Old Series.
Meanwhile, DaCosta, who outgunned stakes leaders Nunes 1-0 over the Heroes weekend two-day carnival, picking up a victory with Watson’s SUMMER SUN on Saturday, still fell behind by another $215,000 at the end of Monday.
Nunes’ superior numbers, especially in the three-year-old and two-year-old ranks, for example, having earners such as VERSATILE VISION in the rich Cash Pot Trophy, in addition to older runners on the programme, KALAHARI, K J EXPRESS and a claimer, STALLWALKIN’GIRL, could very well nullify the $546,000 cheque DaCosta should pick up with LADY BLUE.
Nunes blanketed the Heroes Day programme with 16 runners of which none won, but all went home earning purse monies, which added $215,000 to his lead, leaving the champion trainer counting down the days to the November 9 Diamond Mile, which he is expected to flood with as many as six runners, led by stable stars SHE’S A MANEATER and unbeaten importee STRANGER DANGER.