Atomica books Mouttet ticket with Jamaica Cup win
Published:Sunday | November 10, 2024 | 12:12 AMAinsley Walters - Gleaner Writer
GARY SUBRATIE booked two early bird tickets to the Mouttet Mile yesterday with supersonic-like win-and-you’re-in victories by United States-bred DESERT OF MALIBU and local-heroine ATOMICA in the Port Royal Sprint and Jamaica Cup, respectively.
ATOMICA made the Jamaica Cup her own with a third consecutive win in the third running of the nine and a half-furlong race. With no Jason DaCosta rabbit to press her, which had resulted in back-to-back losses to imported FUNCAANDUN, the defending champion ran as though she were a hovercraft on the wet surface.
Sent to unsettle ATOMICA on the lead, NEO STAR waved the white flag three furlongs out, leaving stablemate and Jamaica Derby runner-up RUN JULIE RUN to come off her bridle too early in chase of a cruising ATOMICA.
Straightening with Dane Dawkins taking rearview glances, ATOMICA responded strongly when RUN JULIE RUN came charging at her inside the last half-furlong. Though closing in like a locked missile, RUN JULIE RUN failed by three-quarter of a length to overhaul ATOMICA, who won in 2:00.1.
HISTORY OF BRILLIANCE
Meanwhile, whether it was the racing gods or Lady Luck, the monkey which often plagues DESERT OF MALIBU – a chequered history of brilliance mixed with disqualifications and mishaps at the gate – found itself aboard 4-5 favourite PACK PLAYS, blunting an eagerly awaited match-up of the speedy foreigners.
After clocking a blazing 1:17.3 for six and a half furlongs, setting tongues wagging with Mouttet Mile-formality talks, PACK PLAYS’ second run on local soil went to pieces at the start when Panamanian Dick Cardenas lost his right stirrup.
Zipping from the gate alongside DESERT OF MALIBU, PACK PLAYS kept pace for the first half-furlong before Cardenas, aiming for control of his mount along the rail, dislodged his left stirrup and rode rodeo-style throughout to finish fourth.
DESERT OF MALIBU accelerated off the hone turn to win by four-and-a-quarter lengths in 1:12.3, splashing mud at invisible rivals over the last furlong.