Barnaby gears up for Mouttet with Alsafra trophy

BARNABY, ONE of six Americans for whom Mouttet Mile gates have been reserved, debuts among overnight-allowance company in Sunday’s Alsafra at seven and a half furlongs.

Three-year-old BARNABY, a Churchill Downs winner, has been busy in the mornings since late September, galloping every Sunday since. His best was six furlongs out the chute last Sunday morning, clocking 1:13.4. The clockers have denoted all of BARNABY’s gallops with ‘ridden’, suggesting that he is no speedster but instead, a closer, explaining trainer Anthony Nunes throwing in sprinter LEGIT BOSS to set the early fractions.

BARNABY’s race record, three wins from six starts, his last two being in excess of a mile on the synthetic track, among claimers at Churchill, shows that he is clearly a stayer, sired Tapiture out of the Giant’s Causeway mare, Giant’s Diva.

Racenet.com quotes BARNABY’s “most significant win to date” as December 14, 2023, “getting the money in the US$22,225.00 Maiden Special Weight, defeating Runaway Joke” at six furlongs as a two-year-old at Fair Grounds.

LEGIT BOSS is versatile and will be able to keep SUPER ALEX, EAZY PEAZY and CALIFORNIA GOLD busy on the lead for BARNABY to get going.

Luckily for BARNABY, he will face no real holding speed in the Alsafra line-up. However, if he isn’t a fast learner, the Mouttet Mile is an unkind race for such luxuries.

Meanwhile, the other Americans, horses overseas-based since January 1, are all in the island for the December 7 Mouttet Mile purse of US$250,000, including Nunes’ other aspirant, TIK TOK, who has been training at Caymanas Park but is yet to face the starter.

Among the foreign invaders are PACK PLAYS, who made a smashing debut at six and a half furlongs on September 21 but lost his stirrup in an anticlimatic clash with fellow importee DESERT OF MALIBU in last Saturday’s six-furlong Port Royal Sprint.

Of the other foreigners champing at the bit for a shot at the Caribbean’s richest purse, defending champion Rohan Crichton’s pair of LEGACY ISLE and COMMANDANT stepped off the plane yesterday and will spend two weeks in quarantine at Plumb Point, leaving their connections with only nine days to make the Mouttet Mile.