Kelvin ‘N’

It was a tense sixth race on the fi­nal day of rac­ing for the 2023 sea­son with Bri­an Boodram­s­ingh and ap­pren­tice Tris­tan Phillip tied on 13 wins.

It all came down to the fi­nal ride on the Box­ing Day card on Tues­day with Boodram­s­ingh be­ing giv­en the ride on The­o­ry of Colours and cham­pi­on ap­pren­tice Phillips aboard Al­pha Cen­tau­ri.

Pun­ters and tur­fites alike were plung­ing on the Glenn Mendez-trained The­o­ry of Colours with Boodram­s­ingh rid­ing the two big race win­ners on the day at San­ta Rosa Park in Ari­ma, in Head­lines Again and Hel­lo World.

Boodram­s­ingh’s mount was all the rage with Al­pha Cen­tau­ri at 5-1 in the bet­ting. But, the pun­ters and tur­fites had it right and the two dom­i­nant hors­es fought out the fin­ish in the Mod­i­fied Bench­mark Hand­i­cap three-year-old and over hors­es rat­ed 35-0.

When the starter sent the field off, the speedy last-time-out win­ner Lit­tle La­dy, sta­ble­mate of The­o­ry of Colours, was first to show. She was pressed by Twit­ter King and Mag­i­cal World as Boodram­s­ingh ma­noeu­vred his mount to the in­side as Al­pha Cen­tau­ri had to be checked.

Go­ing down the back­stretch, Lit­tle La­dy and Twit­ter King kept up the gal­lop as Boodram­s­ingh and The­o­ry of Colours moved clos­er to the lead­ers with Mag­i­cal World track­ing and Al­pha Cen­tau­ri clos­ing up.

Com­ing to the cor­ner, Twit­ter King picked up the race and went for home as Lit­tle La­dy and Ricky Jadoo had enough mean­while Boodram­s­ingh asked The­o­ry of Colours to go and win her race as Phillips brought Al­pha Cen­tau­ri to chal­lenge.

The crowd at San­ta Rosa Park erupt­ed as Boodram­s­ingh and The­o­ry of Colours pulled a length clear of Twit­ter King and the chal­leng­ing Al­pha Cen­tau­ri and the bat­tle was on, Boodram­s­ingh ver­sus Phillips.

At the line, the Glenn Mendez-trained The­o­ry of Colours won to give Boodram­s­ingh his ninth jock­eys’ ti­tle.

As it now stands, Boodram­s­ingh is just one win away from Bri­an Hard­ing who won the cham­pi­onship ten times.

Af­ter the race, Boodram­s­ingh said, “It was good to come back and win the cham­pi­onship. I be­lieved that I could and the train­er and own­ers gave me what was need­ed. I must thank my train­er John O’Brien for his kind­ness and skill in get­ting his hors­es ready to per­form in the man­ner that they did. I thank every­one, the grooms for their sup­port in my ven­ture. My first two win­ners were easy but I had to ride for my fi­nal vic­to­ry. Thank You, Glenn Mendez.”

O’Brien con­tin­ued his win­ning ways and took the two ma­jor events on the fi­nal day of this sea­son. Both hors­es were rid­den by Boodram­s­ingh.

O’Brien and Boodram­s­ingh end­ed the sea­son just as they start­ed win­ning every ma­jor event con­test­ed. The lead­ing rid­er of the day as well was Boodram­s­ingh who rode three win­ners in Head­lines Again, Hel­lo World and The­o­ry of Colour.

“It was a tough bat­tle but I came out on top. Tris­tan will have his day in the sun soon. But I hope all goes well with Head­line s Again and the im­prov­ing Hel­lo World in 2024,” he con­clud­ed.