The biggest race day in Bar­ba­dos Turf Fes­ti­val will take place Sat­urday (March 1) at the Gar­ri­son Sa­van­nah in St Michaels be­gin­ning at 1 pm.

On the ten-race card, there will be three fea­tured events in­clud­ing the Grade One XX Sandy Lane Sprint Stakes & Tro­phy, which car­ries a purse of $50,000 Bar­ba­dos Dol­lars.

The sec­ond race is the Grade One - XXII Tan­gle­wood Stakes & Tro­phy over 2,000 me­tres on the turf and West In­di­an-bred four-year-olds and the XLII Sandy Lane Gold Cup over 1,800m which car­ries the largest purse of $214,000 Bar­ba­dos dol­lars.

T&T hors­es Hel­lo World, Princess Aruna, The God­dess Nike and Sneaky Cheeky have all been well pre­pared for this meet and they are ex­pect­ed to give a great ac­count for their own­ers and train­ers alike.

Cham­pi­on train­er John O’Brien is very op­ti­mistic about the chances of his trio of Hel­lo World, Princess Aruna and his Sandy Lane Bar­ba­dos en­trant The God­dess Nike. All three hors­es have been ad­e­quate­ly trained for their events and are ex­pect­ed to go close.

In the Sandy Lane Sprints Stakes over 1,200 me­tres, the Ramesh Ram­roop-trained Stew­ards Cup win­ner Sneaky Cheeky will go to post and Ram­roop be­lieves he must have a great chance. He is drawn well, so it is all in the hands of Dil­lon Khelawan.

Look­ing at the chances of our hors­es, I think the best horse of the quar­tet is the O’Brien-trained Hel­lo World which will be chas­ing his ninth con­sec­u­tive suc­cess in his ca­reer. He is the high­est-rat­ed horse in the field and should he give his best and true run­ning, he will win the Tan­gle­wood Stakes.

In the Sandy Lane Bar­ba­dos Gold Cup, which has on­ly eight en­trants The God­dess Nike is the light­est weight­ed horse in the field and Prayven Badrie will take the reins with 20 pounds. She will at­tempt to bet­ter the suc­cess of own­er Chevan Ma­haraj. She will have to be at her very best to stop the Tod Pletch­er-trained Jer­ry The Nip­per which has re­turned for the event to­day. Al­so ex­pect­ed to be in the fin­ish is Smokin’ T which will be rid­den by the leg­endary Patrick Hus­bands.

The word com­ing out of Bar­ba­dos yes­ter­day is that the T&T hors­es are set and ready to do the part but it will take a ‘Su­per Mod­el’ or a ‘Hur­ri­cane’ to stop Hel­lo World from giv­ing O’Brien his first Tan­gle­wood vic­to­ry.

SANDY LANE GOLD CUP DAY CARD

R5: 3.25 PM - The XX Sandy Lane Spa Sprint Tro­phy (Grade One - 3-Year-Olds and Old­er) - 1,100M - $50,000

1 Sneaky Cheeky R Ram­roop/D Khelawan 127

2 Sir Jim­my R Deane/D Lopez 132

3 Light­ning Lewis R Peirce/T Hazel­wood 132

4 D Hum­ming Bird K John/J Beck­les 127

5 Re­nai­sance Frol­ic A Nunes/R Williams 132

6 Za­eed J-M Co­zi­er/R Wal­cott 132

7 Domi­nus A Nunes/R Hugh­es 132

8 Enisa Math­ews/D By­noe 114

9 Bril­liant News A Nunes/R Knights 132

11 Bren­ner Pass A Nunes/R Bowen 132

R7: 4.40 PM - The XXII Tan­gle­wood Stakes & Tro­phy - (GR 1R-Bar) West Indain Bred 4 Year-Old and Old­er - 2,000M - $70,000

1 He­roes Dar JM Co­zi­er/(Res 2) 125

2 Fil­mores J Simp­son/R Williams 129

3 Price­less K Fe­li­cien/N Pre­sod 129

4 Hur­ri­cane E Wal­cott Jr/A Bish­op-129

5 Ares K John/D Lopez 129

6 Princess Aruna J O’Brien/R Wal­cott 124

7 Undis­put­ed A Nunes/R Hugh­es 129

8 Queen of South A Nunes/R Knights 120

9 Michaal R Peirce/T Hazel­wood 124

10 Hel­lo World J O’Brien/D Khelawan 129

11 Pa­pil­lon R Lovell/ (Res 1) 120

12 Cap Ro­cat R Lovell/A Daniel 129

13 Su­per Mod­el E Wal­cott Jr/PP Hus­bands 124

14 Danc­ing Prospec­tor JD Chan­dler/R Bowen 129

R8: 5.40 PM - The XL11 Sandy Lane Gold Cup (Gr 1-Int-Bar) 3 Year-Year-old and Old­er - 1,800M - $214,000.

1 Jer­ry The Nip­per T Pletch­er/D By­noe 129

2 Show The Mon­ey R Lovell/R Wal­cott 129

3 The God­dess Nike J O’Brien/P Badrie 120

4 Port­fo­lio Com­pa­ny C Brown/A Bish­op 129

5 Vivid­ly C Williams/R Bowen 124

6 Har­row S Joseph Jnr/R Hugh­es 129

7 Pub­lic Sec­tor S Joseph Jnr/T Hazel­wood 129

8 Smokin’ T C Brown/P Hus­bands 129