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Wednesday, May 28, 2025

In The Headlines wins Derby and Triple Crown

by

Kelvin 'N'
610 days ago
20230925
Trainer John O’ Brien, second left, and connections of the Ladies Stable in the Winners’ Circle  with Derby winner In The Headlines and jockey Rico Hernandez after the horse won the Trinidad Derby Stakes (GR1) Open to WI bred horses at Santa Rosa Park in Arima on Republic Day, yesterday.

Trainer John O’ Brien, second left, and connections of the Ladies Stable in the Winners’ Circle with Derby winner In The Headlines and jockey Rico Hernandez after the horse won the Trinidad Derby Stakes (GR1) Open to WI bred horses at Santa Rosa Park in Arima on Republic Day, yesterday.

Ralph Banwarie

The un­beat­en three-year-old fil­ly In The Head­lines showed that she is a class act when she won the fi­nal leg of lo­cal rac­ing ‘Triple Crown’, the Grade One Trinidad Der­by, for cham­pi­on train­er John O’Brien at San­ta Rosa Park in Ari­ma, on Mon­day.

O’Brien wrote his name in­to the record books as he is the first train­er to win four con­sec­u­tive Der­bies.

The Ladies Sta­bles-owned fil­ly was the sec­ond favourite in the race at 8-5 in the bet­ting. The leader in the bet­ting was sta­ble­mate Hel­lo World which was the 1-5 favourite. The bet­ting clear­ly ar­tic­u­lat­ed that this was a two-horse race and so it turned out to be.

When the starter sent the six-horse field on their way from the 2,000 me­tres, Lit­tle La­dy was first to show from Harts Gap who came from the out­side post to set the pace. The pair led from The­o­ry of Colours and In The Head­lines, who had a new rid­er in Ri­co Her­nan­dez, a for­mer ap­pren­tice cham­pi­on of T&T. These were fol­lowed by Hel­lo World with Blind­ing Lights be­ing held up at the back.

Go­ing down the back straight, the pair of lead­ers, Harts Gap and Lit­tle La­dy, still held sway but on­ly just as Her­nan­dez asked his fil­ly to get a lit­tle clos­er as did Ricky Jadoo on The­o­ry of Colours. The favourite Hel­lo World was some six lengths be­hind the pace with on­ly one be­hind in Blind­ing Lights.

Go­ing to the far turn was ex­act­ly where Her­nan­dez sent In The Head­lines in­to the lead and the fil­ly who had many ques­tions to an­swer, re­spond­ed in the af­fir­ma­tive. She opened a two-length lead on Harts Gap as Lit­tle La­dy could not go on as No­bel Abrego brought Hel­lo World in­to the race and he be­gan to close on the leader as The­o­ry of Colours at­tempt­ed to stay on.

At the top of the straight, just as did in the Guineas and the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic, she cruised away and though she had a lot of swim­ming done with her, she quick­ened away and cleared away by six lengths as Abrego brought Hel­lo World out­side to de­liv­er his chal­lenge.

In­side the fi­nal 300 me­tres, In The Head­lines kept up the gal­lop and though Hel­lo World was clos­ing at the line, he was not go­ing to catch the fourth ‘Triple Crown’ win­ner. The Ladies Sta­bles-owned fil­ly by Head­line News was get­ting tired in the fi­nal 100 me­tres but her heart nev­er gave in and she held on to win by 1 1/2 lengths in the time of 2:10.3 from Hel­lo World. Third place fell to The­o­ry of Colours with ear­ly pace­mak­er Harts Gap, well back in fourth.

Win­ning rid­er Her­nan­dez said, “She trav­elled well through­out the race and when I sent her on she did it eas­i­ly. She is a very good horse who kept her un­beat­en record in­tact.

Train­er O’Brien was al­so hap­py with the per­for­mance say­ing: “That was a fan­tas­tic per­for­mance. She is just about 85 per­cent fit and she did it in style. She is a very good fil­ly. She had her prob­lems but has come out with fly­ing colours and Ri­co Her­nan­dez gave her a great ride.”

The day be­longed to O’Brien, who won three races on the six-race card. He opened the day with a stun­ning win­ner of the first Ju­ve­nile event in Head­lines Again. This horse, a full broth­er to the 2020 Stew­ards Cup and Gold Cup win­ner Mak­ing Head­lines, won by eight lengths. He al­so won the fi­nal event with Princess Roy­al who bolt­ed up by 3 3/4 lengths for the Raro­ma Sta­bles.

An­oth­er good per­for­mance was seen from the Glenn Mendez-trained Mar­vel Vig­or who won by 4 1/4 lengths with­out com­ing off the bri­dle.

In The Head­lines has crushed the op­po­si­tion in the three con­test­ed jew­els of lo­cal rac­ing’s ‘Triple Crown’.

DAY 11 RE­SULTS

R1: NA­TIVE BRED 2 YO MAID­ENS 800M - $13,900

1*(3)*Head­lines Again*N Abrego*57.5*

2*(5)*Red Alert*J Boodram­s­ing*55*

3*(4)*Creme De La Creme*R Jadoo*55*

4*(1)*So­ca Syn­er­gy*N Sama­roo*56*

TIME: 0:49.3 DIS­TANCES: 8, Head, 3 1/4, 5

$1PARI: (3) $1.20

$1EX­AC­TA: $6.95

TRI­FEC­TA: $14.25

WIN­NER: 2y.o. B fil­ly - Head­line News/Sher­ry’s Tiger (Hold That Tiger)

OWN­ER: Ruthven R Smith TRAIN­ER: J O’Brien

BREED­ER: Ruthven R Smith

AL­SO RAN: 5. Bee Alert D Khelawan 55.

R2: MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP 1,100M - $13,900

1*(2)*She WBO On Time*J Boodram­s­ing*56.5*

2*(7)*Ukraine*O Mo­hammed*56.5*

3*(3)*Ful­fill*D Khelawan*56*

4*(6)*Man On Fire*K Chan­dler*55*

TIME: 1:06.0: DIS­TANCES: 2, 2, 7 3/4, 5 1/2, Neck,1

$1PARI: (2) $2.85; $1.20; (7) $1.25; (3) $1.55

$1EX­AC­TA: $11.85

TRI­FEC­TA: $17.50

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $158.55

WIN­NER: 6 y.o. B mare - Ve­gas No Show/Wood­lake Road(Salt Lake)

OWN­ER: D & DR Sta­bles TRAIN­ER: J Ram­per­sad

BREED­ER: Juan Mosca

AL­SO RAN: 5.Qua­si­mo­to N Sama­roo 57; 6. El Chapo R Jadoo 53; 7. Pure Strike N Flaven­ney 53.5.

NON-RUN­NER: Gold For John

R3: MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP 1,100M - $14,400

1*(7)*CP Jet*D Khelawan*55.5*

2*(1)*Mag­nifi­co*N Sama­roo*56*

3*(8)*Mid­night Lover*J Boodram­s­ing*56*

4*(3)*Davin­dra*N Aberego*57*

5*(4)*Prince Con­nor*O Mo­hammed*55.5*

TIME: 1:04.4 DIS­TANCES: 2 3/4, 1/2, 3 3/4, 3 1/4, 3/4, 10 1/4

$1PARI: (7) $5.60; $1.25; (1) $1.35; (8) $1.50

EX­AC­TA: $18.25

TRI­FEC­TA: $55.60

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $89.80

Hi-5: $173.30

WIN­NER: 6 y.o. CH horse - Cac­tus Amour/Ka­ma Su­tra (A Great Team)

OWN­ER: Patrick L Boyce TRAIN­ER: R Fred­er­ick

BREED­ER: Hugh Lee King

AL­SO RAN: 6. Davin­ci Code R Jadoo 54.5; 7. Zee Zee K Chan­dler 55; 8. Co­man­dante N Flaven­ney 58.5.

R4: MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP 3 YO AND OVER HORS­ES RAT­ED 25-0 - 1,350M - $13,900

1*(7)*Mar­vel Vig­or*D Khelawan*57.5*

2*(4)*Princess Aruna*N Abrego*59.5*

3*(5)*Just Ex­hale*O Mo­hammed*53.5*

4*(2)*Star of Won­der*N Flaven­ney*48*

TIME: 1:23.3 DIS­TANCES: 4 1/4, 4 1/4, 2 1/4, Nose

$1PARI: (7) $2.60; $2.25; (4) $1.50

$1EX­AC­TA: $4.20

TRI­FEC­TA: $5.15

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $24.10

WIN­NER: 5 yo B h - Sig­nal Alert/Sweet Au­ra (Hold Me Back)

OWN­ER: Er­rol Sta­bles TRAIN­ER: Glenn Mendez

BREED­ER: An­dre & Nigel Bap­tiste

AL­SO RAN: 5. Fin­ish­ing Touch J Boodram­s­ing 56; 6. Blue Agave R Jadoo 53.5; 7. Pawan Pu­tra N Sama­roo 54.5.

R5: TRINIDAD DER­BY (GR I) OPEN TO ALL HORS­ES 3 YO - 2,000M - $73,400

1*(4)*In The Head­lines*Ri Her­nan­dez*54.0*

2*(1)*Hel­lo World*N Abrego*57*

3*(5)*The­o­ry of Colours*R Jadoo*54.0*

4*(6)*Harts Gap*J Boodram­s­ing*55*

TIME: 2:10.3 DIS­TANCES: 1 1/2, 10, 11 1/4, 10 3/4.

$1PARI: (4) $2.65; $1.60; (1) $1.25

$1EX­AC­TA: $4.05

TRI­FEC­TA: $5.15

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $24.10

WIN­NER: 3 y.o CH fil­ly - Head­line News/B’s Pas­sion (Pre­cise Sweep)

OWN­ER: The Ladies Sta­bles TRAIN­ER: J O’Brien

BREED­ER: Di­ane Scott

AL­SO RAN: 5. Blind­ing Lights N Sama­roo 56; 6. Lit­tle La­dy D Khelawan 55.5.

R6: MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP 3 YO AND OVER HORS­ES RAT­ED 50-35 1,750M - $13,900

1*(10)*Princess Roy­al*D Khelawan*56.5*

2*(1)*Miss Sunak *N Flaven­ney*53.5*

3*(3)*JC Pey­ton*J Boodram­s­ing*56.5*

4*(11)*At­ta Girl Sil­vy*K Chan­dler*56.0*

5*(6)*Emo­tion­al Dam­age*J Arneaud*57*

TIME: 1:33.3 DIS­TANCES: 11, 2 1/4, 7 3/4, 4, 3 1/2, 1 1/4, 5 1/4.

$1PARI: (4) $1.50; $1.10(1) $1.15; (9) $1.40

$1EX­AC­TA: $3.20

TRI­FEC­TA: $31.05

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $135.30

HI-5: $2,191.40

WIN­NER: 3y.o. ch f - Jou­vert/Al­ways A Princess (Charis­mat­ic Cat)

OWN­ER: Raro­ma Sta­bles TRAIN­ER: J O’Brien

BREED­ER: Ra­jen­dra Ma­hara­jh

AL­SO RAN: 6. Mona Lisa R Jadoo 54; 7. Twit­ter King O Mo­hammed 58.5; 8. Em­press Has­san N Sama­roo 57; 9. Mag­i­cal World N Abrego 58;

NON-RUN­NERS: Al­pha Cen­tau­ri, Beep Beep, Dusty Road.


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