Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer
The 9-5 favourite AHWHOFAH (No. 2), one of five winners for champion jockey Omar Walker, is about to tag her stable-companion RACING MACHINE (Carlton Malcolm) near the finish of the Caymanas Park 50th Anniversary Trophy race over 1400 metres yesterday. SHANGHAI PASS (Trevor Simpson) finished a close third.
Orville Clarke, Gleaner Writer
Champion jockey Omar Walker highlighted yesterday's Caymanas Park golden anniversary meet with five winners, including the crack sprinter AHWHOFAH in the Caymanas 50th Anniversary Trophy race over 1400 metres for grade-one horses.
Walker, who is on course for a third consecutive jockeys' title after extending his lead to 19 over closest rivals Dane Nelson and Paul Francis, also won aboard 8-5 chance TIMOTHY SCOTT in the fourth race, KEELER at 7-2 in the in fifth, 1-9 favourite BULLET LINE in the eighth and 4-5 favourite SERGEANT STONEHAN in the ninth to push his season's tally to 80.
This was in fact his second five-timer in recent weeks and his fifth since he started riding as an apprentice on July 29, 2006.
AHWHOFAH, one of three winners for champion trainer Wayne DaCosta on the card, stamped herself as one of the best native-bred fillies to race at Caymanas with an impressive weight-carrying performance in the commemorative feature contested by seven starters.
She toted the crushing impost of 60.5kg and, although asked to give weight all around, produced a terrific stretch run after being outpaced in the backstretch to catch her front-running stable-companion, the American filly RACING MACHINE (5-2) within shades of the wire, winning by a neck.
Hat-trick
AHWHOFAH, who completed a hat-trick of cup race wins, allowed the lightly weighted RACING MACHINE all of 11.5kg and covered the distance in the smart time of 1:24.3. Owned and bred by Winston Kong AHWHOFAH, a four-year-old bay filly by champion sire Royal Minister out of Executive Profile, has now won 11 races from 17 career starts with total stakes of $6.6 million.
DaCosta said: "She has baffled me again. This was a magnificent weight-carrying performance and she must now rank as one of the finest fillies to race at Caymanas Park."
On a day when the fancied horses held their own, four veteran racing men who are still active today were honoured by CTL for between 50 and 40 years service to the sport.
They are 'Hall of Fame' trainer Sydney Watson, trainer Stanley Findlay, jockey David 'Scorcher' McKenzie and former jockey Keith Saunders, now employed as an outrider at Caymanas Park.
The racetrack was opened on Saturday, August 22, 1959 - 50 years to the day, yesterday.