Solid Gold aims to lift Cup for tt

BRIDGETOWN: The four-year-old colt Solid Gold is carrying Trinidad and Tobago’s hopes against the tough Barbados Sandy Lane Gold Cup field at the Garrison Savannah today.

Solid Gold, a winner of his last two races in Trinidad and Tobago, will have leading Barbados jockey Ricky Walcott aboard in a 12-horse field that includes American entry Thady Quill, and Canadians Warleigh, Waltzin Storm and Zoning. The 1800-metre race on turf has a 5.40 pm East Caribbean Time post time and with a purse of Barbados $218,000 (US$109,000), is the richest horse race in the English-speaking Caribbean. Walcott, coming off an outstanding 2002 season at Northlands Park and Stampede Park racetracks in Canada, has never won the Gold Cup, and the Ireland-bred Solid Gold, who holds the Trinidad & Tobago 1725-metre track record, gives him a live shot at the big prize. Trinidad and Tobago’s last win in the Gold Cup came in 1988 with Call to Account. Warleigh, owned by Barbados-based millionaire Eugene Melnyk, will try to improve on his runner-up finish from a year ago. The five-year-old son of Lord at War (Argentina), has made just one start since his second-place effort in the event a year ago. He finished fourth in an allowance race at Gulfstream Park in his seasonal  bow on February 1. Trained by Todd Pletcher, Warleigh has three wins and five placings in 12 starts. Waltzin Storm and Zoning will also carry Melnyk’s colours in the staying event today.

The six-year-old Zoning, to be ridden by Slade Callaghan, is coming off a seventh-place finish in an allowance race at Gulfstream on January 29, in  which Waltzin Storm finished third. Barbadian Patrick Husbands, Canada’s Sovereign Award jockey-of-the-year, will take Waltzin Storm to the post. Bobby Frankel, the Eclipse Award winner as champion trainer in United States horse racing last year, will be represented by Thady Quill, a six-year-old son of Nureyev. The Kentucky-bred finished fifth in the Shoemaker Breeders’ Cup Mile Stakes (G1) at Hollywood Park in May and opened 2003 with a fourth-place finish in the Turf Paradise Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Turfway Park on February 1. Thady Quill, to be ridden by Sandy Lane Gold Cup record-breaking jockey Jono Jones, has five wins and three placings in 14 starts over five years. Jones completed three consecutive Gold Cup wins last year aboard Blast of Storm, the first rider in the history of the event to win three years in a row.

Also entered in the Sandy Lane are 1999 winner Peace Envoy, with Andy Ward riding, Firewon, with Trinidadian jockey Dale Whittaker, and 2002 Barbados horse of the year Talkaboutlucky, under Quincy Welch, champion jockey at Northlands Park in Canada last year. The Barbados $81,900 (US$40,950) Tanglewood Stakes, the secondary feature on the nine-race programme, has 13 starters, including two entries from Trinidad and Tobago — Carnival Messiah (Whittaker) and Barbados-bred Smooth Operator, with Trinidadian Rajpaul Rajkumar riding. Jamaican Ricardo Hibbert, the reigning Barbados champion jockey who does not have a ride in the Gold Cup, partners Alaska Pete in the Tanglewood.