Top Of The Class drawn outside for ‘Champion’

TOP Of The Class will race from the outside post in the eight-horse Carib Brewery Caribbean Champion Stakes at Santa Rosa Park, Arima on Saturday.

The slot was selected for the son of Freshly Squeezed/Crescendo by part owner Rupert Leong Poi at the draw for post positions of the event at the Hospitality Suite of the brewery at Champ Fleurs yesterday. Saturday’s event, which will hold the spotlight on the Arima Race Club Day 36 card, will be the biggest test for the triple crown winner. It will also break new ground for the ARC, which have arranged simulcasting the event to Wood-bine Racecourse in Canada, and other North American tracks.

Victory for Top Of The Class over his seven rivals in the 1800 metres will make him the biggest money spinner in the history of the sport. The $1 million bonus offered by Colonial Life Insurance Company for winning the Easter Guineas, Midsummer Classic, Royal Oak Derby and the Champion Stakes, will carry the chestnut colt’s lifetime stake earnings to $1,423,350. But champion trainer John O’Brien will attempt to deny The Student the distinction of being the first three-year-old to complete the sweep with a three-pronged attack. Maid Of Honour which the champion trainer owns, will race closest to the rails, with Millenium Reign, last year’s Royal Oak Derby winner in gate three and Bound To Dot Com in gate six.

Grant Lourenco will be aiming to break Top Of The Class sequence with two of his top guns. Undisputed will try for an upset from gate two, while his older stable companion Phantom Menace which captured this year’s Stud Farm Association National Stakes will come out of stall four. Punto A Punto,  a six-year-old, represents the oldest of generation of West Indian-bred runners in the tough grind. The roan grey who has shown his versatility, winning over varying distances, will be loaded in stall five. Carnival Messiah who failed to add this event to his resume after capturing the 2001 triple crown is the eldest of three derby winners in Saturday’s line-up, and drew gate seven for his second attempt.