Annie’s Playmate among outstanding horses at Mahaicony Meet

Apr 29, 2009 Sports

Royal Champion, Tropical Passion also impressive

In front of a packed house and in conditions made heavy due to overnight and early morning rain, a number of horses came good to score big wins on a day which was full of upsets as the Anjue and Hamlet Park Race club of Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara successfully staged their grand one day horserace meet at the club’s track on Sunday last. Annie’s Playmate of the Rooney Stable used the opportunity to show that it had acclimatized enough to local conditions.

Miss Aneela Kirtipaul (right) presents the winning trophy in the C class event to Miss Sukhoo of the Rooney stable.

The American Bred horse looked set to make its mark, coming from behind in a blistering finish to secure its first win on Guyanese soil. Running in the feature C class event for first prize of $300,000 in the 1600m event, Annie’s Playmate with jockey Mahendra Sukhoo on mount, shone brightly on an overcast day.

The race got underway and the horses thundered from the starting gates and a battle ensued for the lead with Laura lee In Flight and Finally Jade out front, followed closely by Sequins and Sweet Carmel.

Annie’s Playmate was bringing up the rare at this point. The positions remained the same for most of the race as the animals powered into the back stretch and into the final turn. As they hit the homestretch, Annie’s Playmate made a move, urged on by Sukhoo, the racehorse took off like a bullet, passing its opponents, outdistancing them to win easily in the end by about four lengths.

Laura lee In Flight with Prem Chandra aboard held on for second with Finally Jade ridden by Krishna Singh clinching third and Sweet Caramel fourth.

The co-feature three-year-old event saw Royal Champion of the Ramnauth stable and ridden by Ramnauth, battering pre-race favourite Coconut Boy in a two horse race to create one of the biggest upsets in the horse racing circle. The event was sponsored by Banks DIH Limited and had a first prize of $220,000 and the banks DIH trophy at stake in the 1600m encounter.

Coconut Boy ridden by Daniel Flores known for its sprinting powers started as usual with a tremendous burst of speed, but the experienced Ramnauth astride Royal Champion was able to push his mount to quickly catch up and stayed abreast as the two horses battled into the back stretch.

Royal Champion held pace with Coconut Boy, banking into the final turn onto the homestretch, continuing to pick up speed as it galloped into the lead to win easily by about eight lengths and sparking wild celebrations among supporters.

Tropical Passion of the Rumour’s racing stable running in the F&G class event with the experience Michael Semple on board continued the upset trend when it upstaged its more illustrious opponents to win the $150,000 first prize ahead of The Gap as Fire Power and Finishing Touch faded in the 1200m sprint.

There was another win for the Rumor’s racing stable in the I class event as Zebra ridden by apprentice Brian Ramsammy was able to dazzle on an overcast day to create another upset and taking away the $100,000 purse in another 1600m event. Finishing Touch, Pixie Fire and New World rounded out the money

Jockey Michael Semple rode to his second victory on board Indian Boy in the Division three non-winners event, beating Natural Black. Strike D Fire blazed to victory in the division one and two event as Red Bull, Wonder Lite and Channel Boy ran cold. Tidal Wave was steady in defeating Prince Warrior to take the Three years old non winners event.

At the end of the day’s proceedings, Michael Semple was crowned champion jockey with Mahendra Sukhoo being adjudged runner-up. The Champion stable award went to the Rumours racing stable, while owner Steve Mootoo was adjudged champion trainer.

Over $2.5M was on offer and over 50 horses took part in the day’s action which was incident free.