Top Of The Class vs Sugar Mike tomorrow

A cracking renewal of the $125,000 Guardian Gold Cup awaits racegoers at Santa Rosa Park, Arima, tomorrow. The staying event is rich in talent and accomplishment and is seen in all quarters as the best race of the year. The field of nine has everything — grade one winners, classic winners and budding start. And while the hype will surround Top Of The Class and Sugar Mike, for their splendid performances this season, the 2000 metres showpiece could well provide for an upset with the inclusion of Phantom Bidder, Outswinger, Dottie’s Way and Cash Wager in tomorrow’s line-up.

Top Of The Class is the only runners representing the local breeding industry in the stiff contest and the Glenn Mendez inmate can take over the mantle left by the illustrious Jetsam by justifying all the hype with victory in the grade one contest. He is not the most experienced of the lot but the three -year-old will not be at a big price, because he has captured the imagination of the public in his first season in a way few horses ever can. The son of Freshly Squeezed/ Crescendo is unbeaten in his last six starts, among which were victories in the Easter Guineas, Midsummer Classic, and the Royal Oak Derby, the trio of events comprising the triple crown, and the Caribbean Champion Stakes, the event at the back end of the season which determines the best local bred stayer. For reeling in the quartet of races the front running chestnut banked for his owners Rupert Lerong Poi and Merlin Samlalsingh, besides stakes worth over $300,000, a bonus of $1M offered by Colonial Life Insurance Company for those accomplishments.
The haul saw him surpassing Sian’s Gold as the biggest money earner in a given season, and place him as the top spinner of all times on the local circuits.

Critics, which are very few, will point out that his front running style has yet to come under the closest scrutiny but it may be that he has so much class and it will improve when he takes on the best. Sugar Mike, who finished runner-up to Adawar in this event last year falls into that catigory, since he is the only horse to be bracketed in graded stakes, the highest classification list. He has risen to super star status for his exploits over various distances. He tasted defeat only once, on the turf, from nine starts this year. He was given the title undisputed heavyweight champion for shouldering topweight in five of six graded races after the defeat, and on two occasions with the burdensome 60.5 kilos. So the anticipated clash between the two top contenders for ‘Horse Of The Year’ is on, and it could not come at better time, than on the Guardian Holding Limited Groups of Companies sponsored card, which brings an end to a fabulous campaign of both stars.