Song of Freedom smashes record

SONG OF FREEDOM slaughtered his four rivals in comfortably landing the feature Brian Lara Starter Allowance race at the Arima Race Club Friday Evening Lime at Santa Rosa Park, Arima, yesterday.

On the day with races named after cricketers from the West Indies and Australian teams, here for the fourth and fifth Cable & Wireless one-day internationals, the gelded son of Boston Harbor/Duchess Diva smashed the course record for the 1100 metres distance on the turf. Skilfully ridden by Ricardo Jadoo, Song Of Freedom joined leaders My Son John and In Swinger after 100 metres, and scooted clear 400 metres out for a five-length victory in a time of 1:03.54 seconds, bettering the previous best of 1:03.64. The seven-race programme drew a bumper crowd of over 6,000 fans and over $680,000 went through the windows, causing Chief Executive Officer B Persad Rooplal to exclaim, “We should have this every two months.”

Jockey Wilmer Galviz was the star of the riders landing two winners, while Grant Lourenco saddled two horses into the winning enclosure to be best among his peers. Dividends were very good yesterday, starting with the day’s opener won by Yankee Eagle who rewarded backers with $25.50 and $4.60 on the tote. There were two trifecta dividends past the $1,000 mark, with the biggest, on the Loud Music, Hyarima, What Left trio of $1,235. And three superfecta dividends went over the $1,000 mark with the biggest a whopping $9,268.80 on the Jointy Venture, V For Victory, Living In Hope, Redoubled quartet.