Top Of The Class strikes in Gold Cup

TOP OF THE CLASS finished just there in smoking his four rivals to win the feature Guardian Holdings Gold Cup on the final day of this year’s racing of the Arima Race Club calendar at Santa Rosa Park, Arima, yesterday. And his comfortable two-and-a-half length victory puts the 2003 Triple Crown and Caribbean Stakes winner in the driver’s seat to be crowned Horse of the Year. Always among the first two in the 2000 metres race which carried a purse of $125,000, Venezuelan rider Wilmer Galviz pushed the five-year-old son of Freshly Squeezed/Crescendo into the lead with 1000 metres left, and he breezed to victory. The expected challenge from last year’s winner Sugar Mike never materialised, as the “Sugar Dandy” could only finish a poor fourth.

Victory also gave Galviz the open jockeys title, with 48 winning rides one more than Joshua Stephen 47, who was attempting to become the first-ever apprentice to win both titles in the same year. All For Java scored his fifth victory in as many starts, romping to a comfortable victory to take the co-feature Guardian Life St James Stakes for colts and geldings over 1350 metres. Galviz had the Shaffique Khan-trained son of Java In Flight/Set All on the heels of early pacemaker Adios Amigos, and when he asked him for his effort after 400 metres, it was all over bar the shouting as he won in cruise control by two and three-quarter lengths.

But the highly-fancied Magnificat had to settle for second, beaten 3 3/4 lengths by Jamaican-bred Diplomacy in the other co-feature Guardian Life St Ann’s Stakes also over 1350 metres. Both Galviz and Stephen (J) scored three victories each on the day’s ten-race programme attended by a massive holiday crowd, which saw some turfites getting difficulty in obtaining tickets. Indian Izzi created a fine impression on turfites when winning the Home Guard race for imported two-year-old maidens over 1200 metres in the good time of one minute 11.89 seconds.