KELVIN 'N'

So­ca Har­mo­ny is the new sprint cham­pi­on of T&T.

In a hot­ly con­test­ed Sprint Cham­pi­onship - the Stew­ards Cup - the John O'Brien-trained four-year-old fil­ly was brought with a well-timed run to win the 2023 re­new­al of the event by one-and-a-quar­ter lengths at San­ta Rosa Park, Ari­ma, Sat­ur­day.

How­ev­er, So­ca Har­mo­ny had to sur­vive an ob­jec­tion from jock­ey Omar Mo­hammed, who rode Mak­ing Head­lines, to keep the race.

Pun­ters made the O'Brien pair of Crown Prince and So­ca Har­mo­ny the favourites for the fea­ture race, with pun­ters back­ing Crown Prince in­to the 6-5 favourite and So­ca Har­mo­ny, the 8-5 sec­ond choice. Mak­ing Head­lines, who has im­proved dra­mat­i­cal­ly in his last two starts, fin­ished third at odds of 70/1. He was just a head in front of fourth-placed C'est La Vie with 'Triple Crown' cham­pi­on In The Head­lines in fifth.

When the starter sent the ten-horse field on their way for the Stew­ards Cup, it was a good start and C'est La Vie was first to show un­der Hall of Famer Ricky Jadoo. He led from Mar­vel Vig­or and Su­per Bird with Princess Aruna in fourth. These were fol­lowed by In The Head­lines and Crown Prince, So­ca Har­mo­ny, Top of The Game with Mak­ing Head­lines and Just Ex­hale, trail­ing.

Go­ing to the far turn, C'est La Vie con­tin­ued the gal­lop and had a length lead on Mar­vel Vig­or with Su­per Bird still in third as In The Head­lines moved in­to a chal­leng­ing po­si­tion in fourth.

How­ev­er, with 500 me­tres left, the race changed as Cest La Vie was be­ing pressed by In The Head­lines as Mar­vel Vig­or moved in­to third with So­ca Har­mo­ny im­prov­ing rapid­ly in­to fourth as Crown Prince be­gan to make his run at the lead­ers along with Mak­ing Head­lines.

A loud roar erupt­ed from the stands when C'est La Vie was asked to go win his race in the fi­nal 300m and be­fore you could say 'Jack Robin­son', Bri­an Boodram­s­ingh sent So­ca Har­mo­ny to chal­lenge for the lead. That sweep­ing move made the Lester Moore-owned fil­ly pull away from the field and in no dan­ger. How­ev­er, the run for the sec­ond place mon­ey was close as Crown Prince and the de­ter­mined Mak­ing Head­lines fin­ished strong­ly to snatch sec­ond and third from C'est La Vie. The win­ner's time was 1:12.2.

The oth­er fea­ture event - the Nursey Stakes - over 1,000m on the main track, went to the 1-5 favourite Head­lines Again. The O'Brien-trained fil­ly by Head­line News showed an in­cred­i­ble turn of foot in the fi­nal 300m to put away Au­then­tic­i­ty which chal­lenged at the cor­ner. The Ruthven Smith-owned fil­ly cruised home eas­i­ly un­der Boodram­s­ingh. She record­ed the time of 1:01.2. Au­then­tic­i­ty stayed on well for sec­ond with Red Alert third and Creme De La Creme, fourth.

O'Brien sent out the win­ners of both big races with So­ca Har­mo­ny and Head­lines Again.

Boodram­s­ingh and O'Brien were the re­spec­tive lead­ing rid­er and train­er of the day.

DAY 13 RE­SULTS

R1: MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP 3 YO AND OVER HORS­ES RAT­ED 50-35 - 1,750M - $13,900

1*(5)*Leonar­do An­gel*D Khelawan*58.5*

2*(2)*Co­man­dante*R Jadoo*55*

3*(4)*Mag­nifi­co*T Phillips*52*

4*(3)*Star Of Won­der*A Poon*58*

TIME: 1:58.0 DIS­TANCES: Not Record­ed

$1PARI: (5) $1.85

$1EX­AC­TA: $33.00

TRI­FEC­TA: $388.10

WIN­NER: 7y.o. B geld­ing - Da Vin­ci/Fall­en An­gel (Dev­il's Bag)

OWN­ER: Lance Warn­er Jnr TRAIN­ER: T Thomas

BREED­ER: Fyzal Razif Amin

AL­SO RAN: 5. Princess Roy­al B Boodram­s­ing 51.5.

R2: MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP 3 YO AND OVER HORS­ES RAT­ED 30-0 - 1,600M - $13,900

1*(6)*Lit­tle La­dy*R Jadoo*55.5*

2*(2)*Miss Sunak*T Phillips*55.5*

3*(3)*Mona Lisa*D Khelawan*56.5*

4*(5)*Per­fect Saint*O Mo­hammed*58*

TIME: 1:45.3: DIS­TANCES: Not Record­ed

$1PARI: (6) $5.65; $2.90; (2) $1.10

$1EX­AC­TA: $8.20

TRI­FEC­TA: $32.90

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $120.95

WIN­NER: 3 y.o. CH fil­ly - Head­line News/Lead­ing La­dy (Adore The Gold)

OWN­ER: Chevan Ma­haraj TRAIN­ER: G Mendez

BREED­ER: Chevan Ma­haraj

AL­SO RAN: 5.At­ta Girl Sil­vy A Poon 57.5; 6. Schwarzeneg­ger K Chan­dler 58.

R3: NURS­ERY STAKES OPEN TO W.I. BRED 2 YO - 1,000M - $31,300

1*(6)*Head­lines Again*B Boodram­s­ing*54*

2*(7)*Au­then­tic­i­ty*R Bal­go­b­in*52*

3*(3)*Red Alert*A Poon*54.5*

4*(2)*Creme De La Creme*T Phillips*55*

TIME: 1:01.2 DIS­TANCES: 3 3/4, 7 1/4, 3/4, 1 1/2, 1/2, 99 3/4

$1PARI: (6) $1.20; $1.25; (7) $2.35

EX­AC­TA: $2.40

TRI­FEC­TA: $10.90

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $17.80

WIN­NER: 2 y.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: 6. Hot Rod Kash­ton E Daniel 55; 7. Un­cle Rog N Abrego 57.5.

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

1*(5)*Ukraine*T Phillips*58.5*

2*(7)*Ful­fill*D Khelawan*56*

3*(3)*Afri­di*E Daniel*58.5*

4*(4)*D'Hum­ming­bird*O Mo­hammed*58*

TIME: 1:25.3 DIS­TANCES: 5, 2 3/4, 1 1/2, 1 3/4, 3, 99 3/4.

$1PARI: (5) $2.75; $1.65; (7) $1.65

$1EX­AC­TA: $4.80

TRI­FEC­TA: $18.35

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $40.40

WIN­NER: 3 y.o. B fil­ly - Da Vin­ci/Sweet Ge­nius (Gold Mar­ket).

OWN­ER: Dr Pravin Shar­ma TRAIN­ER: JW-Sama­roo

BREED­ER: Ben­nett P Nurse

AL­SO RAN: 5.Pure Strike N Abrego 52; 6. Man Of Fire A Poon 51.5; 7. Qua­si­mo­to J Alexan­der 55.5.

R5: STEW­ARDS CUP (GR I) OPEN TO WI BRED 3 YO & OVER AND IM­PORT­ED 2 YO AND OVER - 1,200M - $80,500

1*(4)*So­ca Har­mo­ny*B Boodram­s­ing*51*

2*(8)*Crown Prince*N Abrego*57*

3*(1)*Mak­ing Head­lines*O Mo­hammed*57*

4*(3)*C'Est La Vie*R Jadoo*51*

5*(9)*In The Head­lines*T Phillips*51*

TIME: 1:12.2 DIS­TANCES: 11 1/4, Neck, 1/2, 4 1/4, 1 1/2, 4 1/4.

$1PARI: (4) $2.70; $1.55; (8) $1.75; (1) $3.90

$1EX­AC­TA: $5.20

TRI­FEC­TA: $56.05

HI-5: $4,213.80

WIN­NER: 4 y.o B fil­ly - J'Ou­vert/So­ca Rhap­sody (Mar­ket Ral­ly)

OWN­ER: Lester Moore Mr. TRAIN­ER: J O'Brien

BREED­ER: Lester Moore

AL­SO RAN: 6. Just Ex­hale E Daniel 54; 7. Princess Aruna N Flaven­ney 54; 8. Top Of The Game R Bal­go­b­in 51; 9. Mar­vel Vig­or D Khelawan 54; 10. Su­per Bird J Alexan­der 57.

R6: MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP 3 YO AND OVER HORS­ES RAT­ED 40-25 - 1,350M - $14,400

1*(8)*Davin­dra*N Abrego*58*

2*(10)*The­o­ry Of Colours*R Jadoo*54*

3*(3)*Al­pha Cen­tau­ri*O Mo­hammed*56*

4*(7)*Mag­i­cal World*N Flaven­ney*54.5*

5*(9)*Harts Gap*E Daniel*55.5*

TIME: Not Record­ed DIS­TANCES: Neck, 8 1/2, 1/2.

$1PARI: (8) $2.60; $1.20 (10) $1.20; (3) $1.65

$1EX­AC­TA: $6.10

TRI­FEC­TA: $29.65

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $193.30

HI-5: $676.30

WIN­NER: 4y.o. B colt - Da Vin­ci/The Big Squeeze (Big Coun­try)

OWN­ER: Crys­tal Bal­ladin TRAIN­ER: M Lutch­man

BREED­ER: Sieu­sankar Maraj

AL­SO RAN: 6. Em­press Has­san R Bal­go­b­in 54.5; 7. Prince Con­nor B Boodram­s­ing 56.5; 8. Zee Zee K Chan­dler 55.5; 9. Lu Lu Ba­by J Alexan­der 54.

NON-RUN­NER:Twit­ter King.