Halledeen masterstroke brings home Banadura

ROBERT HALLEDEEN stole yesterday’s Jamaica Oaks with a measured ride aboard Thornbird Stakes winner BANADURA, ignoring leader SIPPIN ON SUNSHINE for the first half of the 10-furlong event before injecting enough speed to run the field off its legs.

Asked to pick up the pace leaving the half-mile pole, 6-1 chance BANADURA had BLU SENSATION and SHE’S THAT GIRL alternating in second and third, a duel they continued to the final turn but making no impression on the leader.

Sprinter SHE’S THAT GIRL clearly didn’t like the restriction of being rated, fussily racing with her head high in third while BANADURA tracked SIPPIN ON SUNSHINE. Rank and off the lead, SHE’S THAT GIRL failed to pose the expected speed threat, allowing Halledeen to relax BANADURA as he had done in the Thornbird Stakes when upsetting at odds of 8-1.

Kicked off the turn by Halledeen, BANADURA, who led the 1000 Guineas for six furlongs in June before being swatted off the lead by RUN JULIE RUN in the stretch run, revelled in her Jamaica Derby-bound rival’s absence with no matching speed after getting rid of SIPPIN ON SUNSHINE.

Halledeen, who has enjoyed a tremendous strike rate with owner Milade Azan runners this season, kept BANADURA rolling to win by two and a half lengths ahead of stablemate ROSETTA, a 13-1 outsider, who closed from way off the pace to secure the exacta for champion trainer Jason DaCosta.

AMMA, who came off the turn fourth, challenging the battling pair of stablemate BLU SENSATION and SHE’S THART GIRL, went second a furlong out but lost the runner-up spot at the wire to ROSETTA being driven home by Philip Parchment.

BANADURA clocked 2:14.3 for the 10-furlong Jamaica Oaks, handing DaCosta his third futurity winner of the season following CALIFORNIA CROWN in the 2000 Guineas and next Tuesday’s derby favourite, INTRESTNTIMESAHEAD, who won Last month’s Jamaica St Leger.

Raddesh Roman rode back-to-back winners, BERNARD DE QUIK and TRUST FUND BABY in the sixth and seventh events, making inroads into Tevin Foster’s lead for the second consecutive meet.

Roman’s double briefly reduced Foster’s advantage to three winners before the leading rider responded with United States-bred MADELYN’S SUNSHINE at five and a half furlongs, the first of DaCosta’s two winners to close the 10-race card.

Trainer Enos Brown, who won the 1987 Jamaica Derby with Monday Morning, posted a rare two-timer on the eve of Tuesday’s event, which has an 11-race card and Reggae 6 mandatory payout, which could swell past $20 million.