Afternoon stroll for Oneofakind
ONEOFAKIND tracked and sprinted clear of BIG BIG DADDY to outclass rivals in yesterday’s Errol ‘Big Sub’ Subratie Memorial at a mile, making a mockery of the class-relief he received to race among overnight-allowance runners.
A money-back favourite to close the challenging nine-race card, which paid out $7.6 million to the lone winner of the Reggae 6, ONEOFAKIND broke sharply but was relegated by SIR JOHN and BIG BIG DADDY.
A cut above the pesky leaders, ONEOFAKIND, who beat top-rated stayer CALCULUS at seven and a half furlongs in March, pounced on BIG BIG DADDY coming off the home turn and powered away under Reyan Lewis, closing the late double for champion trainer Anthony Nunes following GOLDEN WATTLE’s win at five furlongs straight.
ONEOFAKIND clocked a workmanlike 1:39.3, getting sharper with each run, after chasing home speedy importee RUNAWAY ALGO in the grade above when reporting off a six-month lay-up on September 25.
Despite saddling two winners, Nunes, who started the weekend $6 million behind stakes leader Jason DaCosta, watched his rival land the $1.5 million BGLC/TOBA Heroes Spring for two-year-olds with speedster MAMMA MIA, who made all to clock 1:01.0 at five furlongs round on debut.
MAMMA MIA beat Richard Azan’s grey colt, MOJITO, who missed the break but closed strongly in the stretch run to get within four and a half lengths of the quick filly, suggesting that he needed more ground and will be a top contender for December’s Jamaica Two-Year-Old Stakes at a mile.
Anthony Thomas, who rode 2-5 favourite MAMMA MIA, earlier landed the second event astride 6-1 chance ULTIMATUM, taking his tally to 78 winners, two off leading rider Dane Dawkins, taking advantage of his rival’s failure to visit the winners’ enclosure for the second consecutive meet of the three-day Heroes holiday weekend carnival.
Dawkins, who is hunting his first jockeys’ title, starts this afternoon’s nine-race card on 80 winners with Thomas hoping to pull level in his bid for a fourth riders’ crown.