None to dethrone ‘king’ Sugar Mike

AFTER looking through the field of runners for the Stewards Cup to be run off at Santa Rosa Park, Arima, on Saturday, it is difficult to spot one to dethrone the “king” Sugar Mike. There are a few entrants in the 11-horse field who will make the 1200 metres race interesting, but do not seem to hold the credentials to beat Mike Samlalsingh’s American-bred 2003 Horse of the Year. The manner in which the five-year-old son of Ponche/No Sugar has been destroying his rivals, giving away lumps of weight, suggest he will not be easily beaten especially since the race will be a weight-for-age affair.

Sugar Mike was beaten in the Sagicor Independence Cup Trophy over 1800 metres, but this was on the turf course, and then too he reportedly lost a hoe in running. His conqueror then, Miss Lover Lover, has not been in action for over one month. Of the younger horses in the field, the four-year-old Fortunate Flag is a very speedy sort, but struggled to hold off Caribbean Kiss in a Starter Allowance 1100 metres on the turf. And then there is Invincibility who seems to have lost his form, the same of which could be said for Soul Asylum. Rebel Music is another speedster but do not seem to have the class, and Lit D’Amour is in that same bracket.

Dauntless Hero has been off the track for more than three months and Ghost Meadow is just that, a ghost who seems to have a mind of her own, and Twice Infallible is another who has not been seen out lately. So it all boils down to Sugar Mike to keep his Stewards Cup title. In the Imported Juvenile Sprint over 1200 metres also on Saturday, it looks like a match race between Dinner Silence and Bold As Brass, unless there are a “world beater” among the other nine, and surely Sunsplash and Celebrity Jet are not. Meanwhile, connections are reminded that third and final subscriptions of $300 for both the St Ann’s Stakes and St James Stakes for two-year-olds, become due today. At the second stage, there were 27 left in the St Ann’s, while another 19 had subs paid up for the St James.