Sugar Mike eyes Sandy Lane Gold Cup

A decision will be made soon if Trinidad and  Tobago’s top horse Sugar Mike will be entered in the rich Barbados Sandy  Lane Gold Cup in March. Following Sugar Mike’s smashing win in Friday’s Guardian Holdings Gold Cup, the four-year-old colt’s owner Bertwin Samlalsingh said they are considering a trip to the March 6 Sandy Lane Gold Cup in Barbados, worth a whopping US$100,000. On Friday, Sugar Mike impressively slammed his TT Gold Cup field that included Triple Crown winner and leading three-year-old Top of the Class, to emphasise his claim as the nation’s best horse. The event was billed as a big clash between Sugar Mike and Top of the Class with the 2,000-metre event poised to influence the horse of the year award.  Sugar Mike won by five lengths in a new track record two minutes 03.58 seconds, almost three seconds faster than the previous mark held by Top of the Class.

Samlalsingh says the result confirmed his pre-race view that Top of the Class was no match for Sugar Mike. “There was really no contest as far as I was concerned,” Samlalsingh told CMC Sport. “Top of the Class has been winning all the three-year-old races and he has been competing against locally-bred horses, my horse used to race in America, he had two wins and three seconds at Calder and Gulfstream (in Florida), and he came down here because I wanted to see him race in Trinidad  rather than have him in America,” Samlalsingh added. Sugar Mike now has five track records in Trinidad and Tobago — over 1,200 metres, 1,300, 1,350, 1,900, and 2,000 metres. Trinidad and Tobago has had three winners of the rich Barbados Gold Cup, but none since Call to Account in 1988, when Emile Ramsammy rode the British-bred horse to victory.