The Chief Commander Classic has been won by several top-class horses over the years. This edition will be contested over 1,600 metres on the turf track at Santa Rosa Park, Arima, on April 10.
When subscriptions were taken yesterday for the feature event, a total of nine horses remain in the hunt for honours. A total of $5,166 was collected for the event.
The race has been robbed of interest with the withdrawal of the top juvenile of 2022 Hello World. However, champion trainer John O’Brien has the recent impressive winner and stablemate In The Headlines, which won the Royal Colours Classic, in the lineup.
This year, the race seems to be between the two top trainers in the country, O’Brien and Glenn Mendez.
The Mendez-trained Firecracker won well on her first start over 1,100m on day one of the Arima Race Club (ARC), on January 28. Firecracker scored decisively by 5 1/2 lengths from Harts Gap, Blinding Lights and Angry Bird. However, the Jerry Narace-owned Firecracker was pulled out of the Royal Colours Classic which was won by the impressive scorer, In The Headlines.
However, Mendez is a master of this art and Firecracker will not race unless she is ready.
One must have respect and regard for In The Headlines. This filly win was an easy one and she no doubt will be seen do even better over this distance of 1,600m.
O’Brien also has Blinding Light, Afridi and Princess Royal in the fray. Blinding Light has finished a good second to In The Headlines in the Royal Colours Classic and looks to be improving. She looks certain to stay and must be in with a chance.
Princess Royal keeps improving with every workout and will have a good opportunity to get into the frame in this event.
The Glen Emmanuel-trained Beep Beep will have her third start in this event and could do even better.
The final two horses nominated for the ‘Classic’ are newcomer Miss Sunak and Star Attraction. They both will need to improve drastically to make the frame in this event. This will be the first time that the three-year-olds will be racing around two turns and will be racing on the turf course.
What a race we could see should In The Headlines and Firecracker take on each other.
O’Brien has four of the nine nominated horses in the event.
The total take for the first two subscriptions is $10,570.
Day four feature (9)
CHIEF COMMANDER CLASSIC (R T&T) (GR III R) - 1,600m: Afridi, Beep Beep, Blinding Lights, Firecracker, In The Headlines, Miss Sunak, Nuclear War, Princess Royal, Star Attraction.