Ability out of class for Women’s Day Trophy

ABILITY, LAST year’s Jamaica Derby winner, Gold Cup second runner-up and Mouttet Mile runner-up, all grade-one events – albeit the derby is age-restricted – has an alibi, the conditions book, to make his second appearance two classes lower, among overnight-allowance runners, in Saturday’s International Women’s Day Trophy at a mile.

Never mind ABILITY’s third-place run in October’s Gold Cup, beaten five and a quarter lengths by SHE’S MY DESTINY – sitting eight pounds off the newly crowned Champion Sprinter of last year – the conditions book dictates that “having never won an overnight-allowance event”, two classes lower than the Gold Cup and the Mouttet Mile in which he was the best-performing local-bred, ABILITY ‘qualifies’ to take his place at the level.

Actually rated ‘above the handicaps’ the mockery goes further with proven grade-one runner ABILITY sitting level with RHYTHM BUZZ and D HEAD CORNERSTONE, two pounds lighter than RANI BANGALA, horses whose only brush with the top level might have been to compete on the same racemeet.

ABILITY’s overnight-allowance alibi, finishing second to BOOTYLICIOUS last Saturday, is as razor-thin as shrink wrap. Drawn at post-position two, it was always a stretch for the middle-distance specialist to catch speedy BOOTYLICIOUS on the stands’ side at five furlongs straight, made ever so worse at almost level weight.

Whichever way the International Women’s Day Trophy is run, there can only be one result, ABILITY outclassing rivals after clocking 59.1 in an exercise gallop behind BOOTYLICIOUS last Saturday.