The Poon Tip Stud Farm Lim­it­ed-owned three-year-old bay geld­ing For­ev­er Grand con­tin­ued on his up­ward spi­ral as he won the sec­ond jew­el of lo­cal rac­ing's "Triple Crown", the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic by a com­mand­ing 1 3/4 lengths in the hands of a con­fi­dent Nela Mo­hammed at San­ta Rosa Park in Ari­ma, on Thurs­day.

Though cham­pi­on train­er John O'Brien won the event he had bit­ter dis­ap­point­ment as he 3-5 charge, the un­beat­en Head­lines Again was with­drawn af­ter he ran away from the front of the start­ing stall yes­ter­day af­ter­noon. The lead­ing ju­ve­nile of 2023 has missed both clas­sics for 2024.

How­ev­er, O'Brien had some­thing to cheer about when Mo­hammed un­leashed For­ev­er Grand with 500 me­tres left in the event. The geld­ing showed good tem­pera­ment to quick­en away from Un­be­liev­able for a mem­o­rable vic­to­ry.

When the starter sent the field on their way with­out Head­lines Again, the oth­er two O'Brien-trained run­ners were made favourites at 4-5 Un­cle Rog and For­ev­er Grand at 9-5. Red Alert was the first to show from Un­cle Rog with Un­be­liev­able close in at­ten­dance. These were fol­lowed by Hot Rod Kash­ton and Se­cret Pages, For­ev­er Grand, and Cap­i­tal Tee with Bold and Brave trail­ing at the rear go­ing down the back straight.

Go­ing to the far turn, Red Alert was still in com­mand and go­ing well, he was able to put away Un­cle Rog who be­gan to drop off the pace un­der new rid­er Keno Chan­dler. How­ev­er, Un­be­liev­able was trav­el­ling just as well and served it up to the leader. Hot Rod Kash­ton be­gan to get clos­er to Se­cret Pages as Mo­hammed asked For­ev­er Grand to move clos­er to the lead­ers.

At the far turn, Red Alert still led from Un­be­liev­able with For­ev­er Grand mov­ing styl­ish­ly in­to third as Se­cret Pages be­gan her run at the lead­ers.

When the hors­es swung for home the crowd at San­ta Rosa Park roared as For­ev­er Grand was un­leashed with his ef­fort but Un­be­liev­able was not back­ing down and the two bat­tled for an­oth­er 100m be­fore For­ev­er Grand pulled away for a mag­nif­i­cent vic­to­ry at odds of 9-5.

Un­be­liev­able fin­ished sec­ond with Se­cret Pages get­ting the bet­ter of Red Alert for third. For­ev­er Grand reg­is­tered the time of 1:57.00 for the trip and will now be look­ing at the Trinidad Der­by which will be con­test­ed on Sep­tem­ber 24 - Re­pub­lic Day.

O'Brien had an­oth­er win­ner in Crown Prince who looked like the cham­pi­on that we know when he quick­ened up in style in the straight and won be­ing eased down with 59 ki­los and Dil­lon Khelawan on his back. He was tru­ly in great shape and a clash with Hel­lo World looks to be on the card. He came from last in the four hors­es field to win in 1:12.30.

Two oth­er train­ers sad­dled two win­ners Ramesh Ram­dan and Lester Alex­is.

DAY 8 RE­SULTS

R1: PETS' HAVEN VET­ERI­NARY HOS­PI­TAL & PHAR­MA­CY NA­TIVE 3 YO AND OVER MAID­ENS - 1,200M - $16,800

1*(3)*So­ca Syn­er­gy*D Khelawan*57*

2*(4)*Zi­ah*J Stephen*57*

3*(2)*Tequi­la Rose*R Jadoo*57*

4*(1)*Dusty Rose*O Mo­hammed*56*

TIME: 1:19.0 DIS­TANCES: 2 1/4, 19, 3/4

$1PARI: (3) $1.45

$1EX­AC­TA: $11.00

TRI­FEC­TA: $54.45

WIN­NER: 3 y.o. B fil­ly - Saint Vigeur/So­ca Rhap­sody(Mar­ket Ral­ly)

OWN­ER: Dwight Hunte TRAIN­ER: L Alex­is

BREED­ER: Lester Moore

R2: PETS' HAVEN PET-STORE AND BOU­TIQUE MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP - 1,200M - $16,800

1*(1)*Schwarzeneg­ger*N Mo­hammed*58.5*

2*(2)*JC Pey­ton*D Khelawan*58.5*

3*(4)*Qua­si­mo­to*O Mo­hammed*56.5*

4*(5)*Pure Strike*J Stephen*55*

TIME: 1:15.3 DIS­TANCES: 4, 10 3/4, 3/4, 32

$1PARI: (1) $2.15

$1EX­AC­TA: $2.70

TRI­FEC­TA: $7.95

WIN­NER: 6 y.o. DK B horse - Ve­gas No Show/Cin­e­ma Show (Gulch)

OWN­ER: Ju­lian Gibbs TRAIN­ER: R Ram­roop

BREED­ER: Par­adise Farms Lim­it­ed

AL­SO RAN: 5.Gold For John R Jadoo 50.5

R3: WAN­DER PETS POW­ERED BY PETS' HAVEN MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP - 1,500M - $16,800

1*(1)*Prince Con­nor*T Phillips*56.5*

2*(5)*Em­press Has­san*N Sama­roo*56*

3*(4)*D'Hum­ming­bird*Ri Her­nan­dez*55.5*

4*(3)*Twit­ter King*D Khelawan*57*

TIME: 1:25.4 DIS­TANCES: 2, /2, Neck, 20 1/2

$1PARI: (1) $2.80

EX­AC­TA: $11.80

TRI­FEC­TA: $77.70

WIN­NER: 6 y.o. DK B geld­ing - Saint Vigeur/Sher­ry's Tiger (Hold That Tiger)

OWN­ER: Clyde Ram­baran TRAIN­ER: C Ram­baran

BREED­ER: Ruthven R Smith

AL­SO RAN: 5. Lu­lu Ba­by R Jadoo 55.

R4: PETS' HAVEN BATH AND CT PLAN MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP - 1350M - $16,800

1*(4)*Mag­nifi­co*N Mo­hammed*54.5*

2*(6)*Davin­dra*T Phillips*57.5*

3*(2)*Co­man­dante*R Jadoo*54.5*

4*(1)*Princess Roy­al*D Khelawan*58*

TIME: 1:24.0 DIS­TANCES: 2, 1/2, 4 1/2, 3 1/4

$1PARI: (5) $6.25

$1EX­AC­TA: $6.75

TRI­FEC­TA: $56.15

WIN­NER: 4 y.o. DK B geld­ing - Charis­mat­ic Cat/Trea­sure Each Day (War Front)

OWN­ER: Clyde Ram­baran TRAIN­ER: C Ram­baran

BREED­ER: Mrs. Ro­ma Sagan Maraj

AL­SO RAN: 5. Al­pha Cen­tau­ri N Sama­roo 57

NON-RUN­NER: Bay View

R5: PETS' HAVEN LUX­U­RY MAS­SAGE FOR PETS MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP - 1,750M - $21,400

1*(3)*Sneaky Cheeky*T Phillips*55*

2*(4)*Ar­salan*J Stephen*57.5*

3*(1)*Mid­night Lover*R Jadoo*57.5*

4*(5)*Just Ex­hale*O Mo­hammed*55.5*

TIME: 1:51.2 DIS­TANCES: 12 1/2, 3 3/4, 9 1/4, 1, 48 1/4

$1PARI: (3) $2.55; $1.65; (4) $2.65

$1EX­AC­TA: $12.30

TRI­FEC­TA: $49.50

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $97.15

WIN­NER: 5 y.o CH mare - Will Take Charge/She's Cheeky (Black Min­naloushe)

OWN­ER: Shaf­fick Mo­hammed TRAIN­ER: R Ram­roop

BREED­ER: Sharon Ale­sia & Ciaglia Rac­ing

AL­SO RAN: 5. Strik­ing Chrome N Sama­roo 56; 6. C'Est La Vie D Khelawan 57.

R6: PETS' HAVEN PET CAFE MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP - 1,200M $21,400

1*(2)*Crown Prince*D Khelawan*59*

2*(4)*In The Head­lines*N Mo­hammed*51.5*

3*(5)*Princess Aruna*R Jadoo*50.5*

4*(3)*Leonar­do An­gel*T Phillips*52*

TIME: 1:12.3 DIS­TANCES: 4, Head, 1 3/4.

$1 PARI: (2) $1.85

$1 EX­AC­TA: $2.95

TRI­FEC­TA: $3.25

WIN­NER:5 yo CH geld­ing - J'Ourvert/Al­ways A Princess (Charis­mat­ic Cat)

OWN­ER: Raro­ma Sta­bles TRAIN­ER: J O'Brien

BREED­ER: Ra­jen­dra Ma­hara­jh

NON-RUN­NER: Su­per Bird

R7: PHVETHOSP VS LTD (PETS' HAVEN) MID­SUM­MER CLAS­SIC (GR 1 R) - 1,800M - $86,800

1*(9)*For­ev­er Grand*N Mo­hammed*57*

2*(2)*Un­be­liev­able*T Phillips*54*

3*(7)*Se­cret Pages*J Stephen*54*

4*(3)*Red Alert*O Mo­hammed*56*

5*(6)*Hot Rod Kash­ton*N Sama­roo*578

TIME: 1:57.0 DIS­TANCES: 1 3/4, 11 1/4, 2, 2 1/4, 3 1/4, 1 1/2

$1 PARI: (9) $2.95; $1.30; (2) $1.85; (7) $2.00

$1 EX­AC­TA: $5.90

TRI­FEC­TA: $32.90

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $71.60

HI-5: $817.20

WIN­NER: 3 yo B geld­ing - Saint Vigeur/Grand Riv­iere (A Great Team)

OWN­ER: Poon Tip Stud Farm Lim­it­ed TRAIN­ER: J O'Brien

BREED­ER: Poon Tip Stud Farm Lim­it­ed

AL­SO RAN: 6. Bold and Brave Ri Her­nan­dez 57; 7. Un­cle Rog K Chan­dler 57; 8. Cap­i­tal Tee R Jadoo 57

NON-RUN­NER: Head­lines Again