- IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
GIRL IN GOLD, one of two winners for jockey Dane Nelson and champion trainer Wayne DaCosta, wins the ninth race for overnight allowance horses over 1300 metres, at Caymanas Park yesterday. Nelson and DaCosta had earlier teamed up to win the opening race with 6-1 shot PASSA PASSA. GIRL IN GOLD won at odds of 9-5.
Orville Clarke, Gleaner Writer
THE STRAIGHT five track record holder, FLYING TIGER, handed talented filly LA REINA her first defeat over the course at Caymanas Park yesterday in the 3-y-o and up open allowance race which offered a total purse of $500,000.
The betting made LA REINA under champion jockey Brian Harding a 4-5 favourite, but in the end she was outfinished by 3-1 shot FLYING TIGER with Devon A. Thomas riding for trainer Gary Subratie and owners Lopez Dream Stables.
BUMPED INTO
FLYING TIGER was actually bumped into at the start by SI MI TRIAL (5-1) and was outsped by highly fancied EXPLOSIVE PEAK, who made most, as well as LA REINA and SI MI TRIAL in a field of six.
EXPLOSIVE PEAK galloped on to the main track with LA REINA in close touch, but she shortened approaching the distance.
By then FLYING TIGER had mended nicely on the stands' side and, coming through as a team with LA REINA early in the last furlong, gained the ascendancy to beat the Anthony Nunes-trained LA REINA by a length with SI MI TRIAL and EXPLOSIVE PEAK fading into third and fourth places, respectively.
FLYING TIGER, who set a new track record for the distance (56.2) in January of last year, clocked 58.3 yesterday.
Subratie, however, felt the jockey rode an excellent race after being bumped into at the start.
"I instructed him that if this were to happen not to panic," recalled the trainer. "I told him to keep his cool and reserve his mount for the last two furlongs.
"I thought the conditions of weight allotment were unfair to him, especially in relation to EXPLOSIVE PEAK who beat him by 1 1/2 lengths over 1100 metres on July 1, but was 5kg better off at the weights.
"Despite all that, I knew he would run a big race for he is such a genuine horse over the straight five course," Subratie said.
This was FLYING TIGER's 11th win from 32 starts and his second from seven outings this season, having won over his pet trip on April 29 with Thomas aboard.
Meanwhile, GIRL IN GOLD (9-5) made most to win the overnight allowance race over 1300 metres, holding off the 8-5 favourite ESTOY LISTO with Harding up by a length in a field of eight.
She was ridden by Dane Nelson for champion trainer Wayne DaCosta.
Nelson, fresh from a two-day suspension, had earlier teamed up with DaCosta to win the opening race with 6-1 shot PASSA PASSA.
Brian Harding shared the riding honours with two winners in evens favourite VENOM in the sixth race and the 46-1 outsider DELROSE for trainer Lechester Beech in the closing straight five race for maiden three-year-olds.
Harding, 49 wins, has widened his lead in the jockeys' standings - six ahead of Charles Hussey and Wesley Henry, both of whom failed to ride a winner, followed by Trevor Simpson (41) who sat out the final day of a two-day suspension.
