Stardom lands Griffiths Classic

STARDOM, the Kingston winner and 2000 Guineas runner-up, yesterday returned with a tongue strap and figure-eight noseband fitted to land the Grade Two Winston ‘Fanna’ Griffiths Classic at nine and a half furlongs for owner We’re Family after disappointing runs in the St Leger and Jamaica Derby.

A full brother to Calculus, St Leger and Jamaica Derby winner in 2021, STARDOM won as the 2-1 favourite with Dane Dawkins after leading past pacesetter EYE OF THE TIGER three furlongs out, seeing off a looming threat from TIA MARIA coming off the home turn before repelling late-charging I LOVE BIRDIE inside the last half-furlong.

MAVERICK, who almost won the Jamaica Derby with a flash-in-the-pan run, losing by a nose to LONDON SPIRIT at 82-1, ran no race as a joint 5-2 second-favourite, bumped at the clubhouse turn and lost his action thereafter.

Dawkins said he was aggressive from the gate on trainer Gary Subratie’s instructions, getting STARDOM to stalk EYE OF THE TIGER as a team with TIA MARIA before going in chase of the ladder four and a half furlongs out.

“The trainer told me to ‘get him going, get him going’,” said Dawkins, the 2022 champion jockey, who had also teamed up with Subratie to win last year’s race aboard Pretty Perfect.

“I always wanted this horse to get going early. Dane gave him too much to do in the Guineas and something went wrong in the St Leger, which we fixed for the derby, but he was too far behind,” said Subratie, who won Saturday’s co-feature, the Kilowatt Trophy, with imported ROYAL POPPY for The Success Farm.

Dawkins won two races on the nine-race card dominated by leading rider Tevin Foster, who booted home a hat-trick in response to champion jockey Raddesh Roman, reducing his lead to four winners on Saturday.

Foster, who recently soared to the lead in the absence of injured Roman, started his assault in the sixth aboard champion trainer Jason DaCosta’s down-in-class importee, I AM FRED, before returning to winning the seventeen and eighth astride NATIVE ISLE and BELLEZA GRIS, respectively.

Meanwhile, big bucks were won with contrasting bets at the weekend, highlighting the differing fortunes of wagering on horse racing.

First, Saturday’s Ketch 9 was taken down by a single-winning ticket staked for $64,800, returning $1.9 million to the bettor who went against banking 1-5 chalk DRONE STRIKE in the fifth event won by 8-1 upsetter C W TREASURE, who reversed 16 and three-quarter length off a July 18 third-place run behind the heavily backed favourite.

Saturday’s Reggae 6 returned $31,592, sending a $1.65-million single-winner bonus to yesterday’s card, which an $8,640 ticket swept, taking the entire pot of $7,426,905.

Bettors were warned in Friday’s Reggae 6 preview that things “could get tricky from the opening event”, which HAIL THE QUEEN won, stumping many Sunday Reggae 6 bets by making all in the opener at odds of 9-1.

The winning Reggae 6 bettor might have heeded the Weekend STAR’s preview to “start Sunday’s Reggae 6 with caution before banking on CITY OF DREAMS to replay the speed he displayed at seven furlongs”, which Peter-John Parsard’s runner repeated, winning at a king’s ransom of 7-2.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR took down many bets at 8-1 in the third, but the real Reggae 6 kicker came in the fifth when LIFE IS LIFE, touted as “a free banker, going for a fourth consecutive win”, ran an absolute stinker of a race in the event won by 2-1 chance MONEY MONSTER.