Kelvin 'N'
Lester Alexis was favouring his chances of winning his first classic and hopefully, racing's prestigious 'Triple Crown', last year with Arsalan at the centralised venue, Santa Rosa Park, Arima.
However, though he did not win a classic he has come back to the land the first Graded event for the Arima Race Club to commence the 2022 racing season, the Sian's Gold Sprint over 1,100 metres on the grass track.
The Alexis trained Cool Cat caused quite a stir at the centralised venue when he out-ran his six rivals to win going away by 2 1/2 lengths with the bottom-weight 45 kilos with Keiran Razack in the saddle.
A happy Alexis, 47, told Guardian Media Sports on Sunday said: "I was confident that he would win after he worked four furlongs in fifty seconds last Sunday on a soft turf track. That was a very good piece of work and when he came back after the gallops he could not blow out a candle. I knew he was ready. We have had him for a while now but this was the first time that he has been able to race on the turf. There was a race for him last month but it was taken off the turf. "
Alexis continued, "We know he does not like it soft and our prayers were answered with sunshine over the last five days coming to the race. It has been a while since he got the 'Luck of The Draw' and I wanted to win this race for his owner. My confidence grew as we did not have to take any overweight with our jockey Keiran Razack. "
Asked about how he thought the race would develop, Alexis said: "The race had too much speed and I thought that would set the race up for my horse Cool Cat. I hope that the ground would dry out and we got that. We did not have to take any over-weight but there was one other concern which we discussed and that was for Razack to do. I hoped he would not miss the break. Yes, I know he would be out-paced but the instruction was to stay on the inside and save ground. We knew that in many turf races horses usually shift off the rail when coming to the corner. As such the plan was to save ground and attack in the straight. Razack, should be complimented as he rode a superb race and did everything that was asked of him. He broke well and held his place in midfield. he stayed on the rail and waited. He was travelling well going down the back straight and I was happy to see him a lot closer than I expected with 500 metres to race. From the corner when he came between Lady Bird and Superbird, I thought he had it won. He had caught the flock of birds and was running away from them."
The rest is history as the Victor Prescott owned six-year-old scored an impressive 2 1/2 length victory over Superbird and Lady Bird to give Alexis yet another Grade Stakes victory on the first day of the new season.