Apostle And Duc D Fer Set To Thrill Garrison Crowds
A superb race programme, featuring many of the best horses in Barbados in ten exciting contests, should attract a huge Easter Monday crowd to Garrison Savannah tomorrow. The Banks Barbados Guineas, the first leg of the Triple Crown takes centre-stage at 5.05pm and promises to be a thriller.
The fast-improving Apostle, owned by Elias Haloute and Sir Charles Williams and trained by Andrew Nunes, will attempt to bring his score to three wins from his last four starts. Apostle scored a facile success on his latest outing and, in the skilled hands of Anderson Trotman, will prove hard to beat.
William Clarke saddles four horses in the race and three of them, Charlie Blue, Harvey Hunter and Enchanted are in superb form. Jono Jones is up on Bouncebak, the fourth Clarke contender but Juan Crawford’s choice of mount, Harvey Hunter, should be the stable’s flag-bearer.
The joker in the pack is the enigmatic filly Kate O’Connor, who was a big flop behind Apostle last time but whose previous form bears the closest inspection. With Patrick Husbands in the saddle, the Arthur Brothers-owned filly, who is trained by Peter Arthur, could emerge as Apostle’s main rival.
Earlier the Banks Beer Trophy, which goes off at 3.50pm, features a fascinating clash between four horses who contested last month’s Sandy Lane Barbados Gold Cup. Liz Deane, who won Barbados’ racing’s biggest prize with Whiskey For Me, is responsible for three of them.
Who’s Wavering, who was second in the Gold Cup, will be a big fancy with Trotman on board while South Sea, who never threatened in the big race, will also have his supporters. The key to tomorrow’s race, however, lies in the distance of 1570 metres.
This drop back from the 1800 metres distance of the Gold Cup should be ideal for Deane’s other contender, Duc D Fer, who started favourite for the big race but could only finish sixth. Duc D Fer’s optimum distance is probably 1570 metres and he is strongly fancied to carry Anderson Ward to victory.
Favorite Player, third in the Gold Cup, and the evergreen Kabul will not let have the Deane trio have things all their own way, however, and the added ingredient of a raider from Trinidad & Tobago, in the shape of Salsa Moves, makes the race even more fascinating.
In the first two events on the card, Dr Pepper and Tom Dooley are expected to lose their maiden tags while the fast improving Bajan Queen should have too much speed for her rivals in the Tiger Malt Trophy. The unbeaten Lady Flood should take the Twist Trophy while Mona Lisa could be the day’s banker bet in the last.
Article by Julian Armfield, BBC World Service Sport, reporting for Totally Barbados
Additional Information:
April 9th, 2007
https://www.totallybarbados.com/articles/entertainment/sports/horse-racing//
