Young train­er Kr­ish­na Sa­hadeo staged an­oth­er 'Coup' when he sad­dled the Coup D'etat to win the fi­nal jew­el of lo­cal rac­ing, the de­ferred Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic over 1,800 me­tres on the turf track at San­ta Rosa Park, Ari­ma on Sat­ur­day. The four-year-old daugh­ter of Saint Viguer was sent off at 4-1 to win the fi­nal clas­sic.

Pun­ters made the Guineas win­ner Just Ex­hale the favourite at 5/2 with the John O'Brien trained Stroke of Luck, the win­ner of the Trinidad Der­by sec­ond favourite at 7/2 in the bet­ting.

When the starter sent the ten-horse field on its way Pas­sion­ate was first to show from the out­side he was tracked by Alani, Just Ex­hale and Pat­ta Pat­ta. These were fol­lowed by So­ca Sym­pho­ny, Game Chang­er with Coup D'etat fol­low­ing and Stroke of Luck fur­ther back.

Go­ing down the back-straight Pas­sion­ate still held sway as Pat­ta Pat­ta, who moved clos­er to the leader Pas­sion­ate with Alani still in touch as So­ca Sym­pho­ny got clos­er while Just Ex­hale lost a few places.

Go­ing to the far turn Pat­ta Pat­ta trav­elled strong­ly in the lead as Pas­sion­ate came un­der pres­sure with Alani, Just Ex­hale, Game Chang­er and So­ca Sym­pho­ny all still in touch and with a shot. Bri­an Boodram­s­ing be­gan to creep clos­er on Stroke of Luck as did Ri­co Her­nan­dez aboard Coup D'etat.

With 500 me­tres left Pat­ta Pat­ta kept up the gal­lop and opened a two-length lead on Just Ex­hale which moved men­ac­ing­ly in­to sec­ond ahead of Alani, Game Chang­er and Coup D'etat with Stroke of Luck clos­ing with every stride.

With 300 me­tres left Pat­ta Pat­ta still held the whip hand but Just Ex­hale was be­ing pro­duced with his chal­lenge as Coup D'etat was brought with his chal­lenge by Ri­co Her­nan­dez as Alani cried enough as Game Chang­er stayed on along with Stroke of Luck.

In­side the fi­nal 200 me­tres, Pat­ta Pat­ta was still in the lead but Her­nan­dez kept com­ing up the rail with his chal­lenge and sud­den­ly Pat­ta Pat­ta looked like­ly to be caught as Just Ex­hale was keep­ing on at one pace with Stroke of Luck still run­ning on but run­ning out of time.

In­side the fi­nal 100 me­tres, the Shiv­am Ma­haraj owned fil­ly Coup D'etat length­ened her strides and raced past the leader Pat­ta Pat­ta for an im­pres­sive suc­cess. Pat­ta Pat­ta ran an­oth­er big race to be sec­ond while Stroke of Luck fin­ished best of all for third with Just Ex­hale in fourth,

The win­ner reg­is­tered the time of 1:52.00 for her 1 3/4 length vic­to­ry.

On the un­der-card, the Shaf­fique Khan trained fil­ly Top of the Game turned in her maid­en cer­tifi­cate in style when beat­ing So­ca Har­mo­ny the 1-5 favourite. The win­ner record­ed the time of 1:15.09 for the trip.

Train­ing ho­n­ours for the day went to Glenn Mendez who sad­dled two win­ners in Mar­vel Vig­or and Sig­nal Note for the Er­rol Sta­bles.

Rid­ing ho­n­our for the day was shred­ded be­tween for­mer cham­pi­on jock­ey Ricky Jadoo and Dil­lon Khelawan who both rode two win­ners each.

This was the first day since the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic that cham­pi­on train­er John O'Brien was win­less on a day's pro­gramme.

SAT­UR­DAY'S RE­SULTS

R6: MID­SUM­MER CLAS­SIC (DE­FERRED) (GR.IR) - OPEN TO W.I. BRED HORS­ES 4 Y.O. 1800M - $40,000

1*(8)*Coup D'Etat*R iH­er­nan­dez*54*

2*(7)*Pat­ta Pat­ta*R Ali*54*

3*(4)*Stroke Of Luck*B Boodram­s­ing*57*

4*(9)*Just Ex­hale*N Mo­hammed*57*

5*(6)*Game Chang­er*S Bal­roop*54*

TIME:1:52.0 DIS­TANCES: 1 3/4, 1 1/4, 1, 3 1/4.

$1PARI: (8) $6.30; $1.45 (7) $1.75; (4) $2.20

$1EX­AC­TA: $51.15

TRI­FEC­TA: $81.00

SU­PER­FEC­TA: $128.30

HI-5: $931.90

WIN­NER: 4.y.o.CH fil­ly - Saint Vigeur/Pra­do's Tune(El Pra­do)

OWN­ER: Shiv­am Ma­haraj TRAIN­ER: K Sa­hadeo

BREED­ER: Ka­ma Ma­haraj

AL­SO RAN: 6. So­ca Sym­pho­ny R Jadoo 54; 7. Kobe D Khelawan 57; 8. Alani K San­to 54; 9. Schwarzeneg­ger N Flaven­ney 57; 10. Pas­sion­ate N Sama­roo 54.5.