NIPSTER falls MAHOGANY, jockeys’ race heading to stalemate
Published:Sunday | December 27, 2020 | 12:15 AMAinsley Walters - Sunday Gleaner Writer
PUNTERS were left in the dark yesterday and will start today’s 11-race card no better off, as the jockeys’ championship battle between Dane Nelson and Anthony Thomas has seemingly been thrown into a stalemate.
Locked on 84 winners apiece entering yesterday’s 10-race card, news spread like wildfire, hours before the 11:15 a.m. first post, that neither would have been in the saddle yesterday and were both doubtful for this afternoon’s programme.
Thomas, it is said, came down with a stomach bug on the eve of the meet, whereas Nelson’s agent, Leroan Lee, said his client has been suffering from knee and groin discomfort.
Should neither grace the track for today’s 11-race card, it will be the second time that a jockeys’ championship ends in a stalemate at Caymanas Park. Richard DePass and Jose Bravo dead-heated in 1970 with 53 winners apiece.
Yesterday’s Ian Levy Cup was won in convincing fashion by NIPSTER, who exploded past MAHOGANY a furlong and a half out in the eight-and-a-half furlong event, catapulting himself into pole position for Horse of the Year honours.
NIPSTER improved vastly at the backend of the season, winning the St Leger in September and losing the Derby in a driving finish to KING ARTHUR a month later.
Meanwhile, Linton Steadman could be a replacement for Dane Nelson astride Anthony Nunes’ Jamaica Two-Year-Old Stakes favourite, FURTHER AND BEYOND.
Reporting off a third-place finish behind stablemates GO DEH GIRL and HOIST THE MAST, used up down the backstretch in a five-and-a-half furlong sprint, FURTHER AND BEYOND showed his preference for the Pick3 Super Challenge’s extended trip, attacking rivals in the straight and staying on stoutly at the end.