Good payout for Reggae 6 players on challenging day

SPENCER Chung’s FOLLOWING WAVE, named as a solid banker for the fourth race, was one of two winning Reggae 6 favourites last Saturday, cruising home at odds of 3-5 with Tevin Foster.
Lady Luck denied last week’s $2,430 wager in the second event, first-choice LIFE IS LIFE scratched and second-choice MIDNIGHT GALAXY falling while on the backstretch of the six-furlong event won by 6-1 chance BIG BIG DADDY.
A payout of $60,312 was reasonable under the circumstances on what was predicted to be another challenging day for Reggae 6 players, who will next aim at a $10 million single-winner bonus this weekend.
TURNONTHELIGHT opened the 11-race card as a winning 6-5 favourite with Raddesh Roman for Peter-John Parsard. Whereas Parsard went on to post a four-timer, Roman was stood down from his remaining mounts after falling from MIDNIGHT GALAXY in a three-horse spill in the second.
Parsard closed the Reggae 6 with his second winner, three-year-old MANOLETTI MAJESTIC beating non-winners of two races and imported maidens at five furlongs straight with Reyan Lewis, who had earlier won the third aboard IMAGINEARIUM for Anthony Nunes.
Lightweight rider Tajay Suckoo, who notched a hat-trick the previous week, was again aboard three winners, winning the fifth event on a chance ride, replacing Roman astride DANKA at five furlongs straight.
Suckoo returned to partner Parsard’s BOSS MAN in the seventh, pulling off a giant-killing act by denying American I’MJUSTAGIRL a fourth consecutive win, running past a furlong and a half out at six and a half furlongs, winning by a dozen lengths in 1:16.2, four-fifths off Eros’ 33-year-old track record.
Lewis closed Parsard’s four-timer in the 10th by going all the way aboard 8-5 favourite D’ HEAD CORNERSTONE before Suckoo closed the card by booting home ACK Stables’ PHENOMENAL POWER in the $10 million Diamond Mile, almost lowering Wantin An Havin’s 29-year-old track record.
PHENOMENAL POWER booked a win-and-you’re-in ticket for December’s Mouttet Mile by flooring two previous winners, defending champion RIDEALLDAY and 2024 hero, FUNCAANDUN - plus two-time runner-up, LEGACY ISLE - posting a stunning gate-to-wire win at odds of 9-1.
American PHENOMENAL POWER shrugged off the previous Saturday’s dismal run a class lower to stun grade-one runners with the form he had used to smash Sky Train’s seven-furlong track record on July 4.
PHENOMENAL POWER broke sharply with Suckoo riding at 112 lb, but was immediately challenged by fellow American LEGACY ISLE with Bebeto Harvey.
Showing preference for middle-distance pace, especially since trainer Adrian Prince removed the tongue tie for his track-record run, PHENOMENAL POWER enjoyed the waiting game Suckooo played with speedster LEGACY ISLE, both peeling away from PACK PLAYS and OF A REVOLUTION leaving the half-mile marker.
Suckoo, now sitting third in the jockeys’ standings on 41 winners, 18 behind leader Roman, said he knew he had LEGACY ISLE beaten from the half-mile.
“LEGACY ISLE was beside me but I heard him (Harvey) asking his horse (for more),” said Suckoo, who paced PHENOMENAL POWER through six furlongs in 1:09.0 on a track still running ridiculously fast for the past three months.
Thundering into the straight along the rail with LEGACY ISLE still on his outside, PHENOMENAL POWER started stretching his lead, leaving his rival swerving right under pressure a furlong and a half out.
GIRVANO, running at 17-1, proved best of the closers, charging from out of the pack under Tevin Foster, catching PHENOMENAL POWER with every stride but the winning post intervened with a length of what would have been an even bigger upset win and certainly a track record as the clock flashed 1:34.4, a fifth off Wantin An Havin’s 1:34.3 posted in November, 1997.
RIDEALLDAY, last December’s Mouttet Mile winner and 3-5 favourite, entering the Diamond Mile after a track-record run in April’s Ian Levy Cup at eight and a half furlongs, struggled under top weight 126lb and torrid pace, the fastest first seven furlongs ever run in a mile race at Caymanas Park, 1:21.2, finishing fifth behind fourth-place ROYAL POPPY and BARNABY, who closed for third.