THE American-bred DR. R S F (Shane Ellis) heads to the winners' enclosure after his decisive victory in the Ivan DeLevante Memorial Cup over 1200 metres at Caymanas Park on Saturday.
FOURTEEN punters with maximum 32 points have shared the $139,000 first dividend prize declared on last Saturday's Racing Pools game.
They will each receive $9,985.70, but nearly all have won additional prizes to top the $10,000 mark. Among the winners were two players who spent the minimum $16.00.
A breakdown of the other prizes is as follows:
# 95 second dividends of $315.30 each for 31 points.
# 423 third prizes of $70.80 each for 30 points. No fourth declared.
# Sales totalled a disappointing $403,465.50 on 2,349 coupons -- down considerably from $578,404.50 on 2,611 coupons. Results official.
On a day when the fancied horses held their own for he most part, players welcomed three winning favourites in the 2-y-o debutant GOINGFORKANSASCITY at 1-5 in the third race, DESPERADO at 2-5 in the fourth and THE BARBARIAN also at 2-5 in the sixth where highly fancied MAN FROM ELDORADO was declared a late non-starter (lame).
Many carried MAN FROM ELDORADO as a banker, but in accordance with the rules and reguations governing the Pools, his backers got to ride the off-time favourite which just happened to be THE BARBARIAN.
The winner that stumped the vast majority was BELLY DANCER at 6-1 in the seventh, having performed dismally in two races prior to Saturday.
One of two winners for top apprentice Ramon Parish, BELLY DANCER assumed the lead from MR. LASEEF leaving the half mile and after racing clear into the straight, held on by the diminishing margin of a length from the very fast-finishing 3-1 shot RULING TUDOR with the favourite SLEWPY'S VALLEY staying on for third, another length away.
Although BELLY DANCER won at a shorter odds than first race winner RUNNING CHASE (8-1), she obviously created more havoc among Pools players.
It was surprising, to say the least, that RUNNING CHASE was allowed to win at such generous odds, considering that the race had given every indication that it would come down to a three-way fight involving the favourite BRAVE DANCER, TWENTYFOUR SEVEN and of course, RUNNING CHASE.
Not surprisingly, they occupied the first three places, the improving apprentice Valentino McBean producing RUNNING CHASE with a strong stretch run to win in a driving finish from 5-2 chance TWENTYFOUR SEVEN.
Another claiming apprentice, Devon Samuel Thomas had a memorable day in the saddle, thanks to three Pools winners. These were INGENIUS at 2-1 in the second race, BOLD REBEL (a chance ride) at 5-2 in the fifth and BOUNCE THE MOON also at 5-2 in the closing race.
Thomas, who was ticking off his first triple since riding for the first time 15 months ago, seems to be getting the grasp of things and my advice to you all is to make some money off his mounts in the weeks ahead.
By Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer
