Sheer Delight warms up for Mouttet with URTAJ trophy

MOUTTET MILE-ASPIRANT SHEER DELIGHT yesterday won his first race on local soil ahead of the US$250,000 event set for December 7, convincingly beating local non-winners of four races at nine furlongs and 25 yards for the United Racehorse Trainers Association of Jamaica (URTAJ) Trophy.

Fitted with blinkers and a figure-8 bridle for his third start locally, the Girvin-Pantyhose three-year-old colt stalked the pace being set by MACK AND ROME, who quit abruptly approaching the three-furlong pole, leaving UNRULY DON to inherit a short-lived lead.

A sweeping move, started a half-mile out, quickly took SHEER DELIGHT past UNRULY DON after which the issue was never in doubt, unbothered by CAPTAIN SPARROW, who closed late to grab second place.

SHEER DELIGHT clocked 1:57.1, completing a jockey-trainer two-timer for Christopher Mamdeen and Donovan Hutchinson after their earlier success with SNEAKY JOE among older non-winners-of-three races in the second event at five and a half furlongs.

SHEER DELIGHT is one of six Americans for whom Mouttet Mile gates have been reserved. Another American invader, BARNABY, debuts among overnight-allowance company in this afternoon’s Alsafra at seven and a half furlongs.

Anthony Nunes-trained BARNABY, a three-year-old Churchill Downs winner, has been busy in the mornings since late September, galloping every Sunday. His best was six furlongs out the chute last Sunday morning, clocking 1:13.4.

BARNABY’s race record, three wins from six starts, his last two being in excess of a mile on the synthetic track, among claimers at Churchill, shows that he is clearly a stayer, sired Tapiture out of the Giant’s Causeway mare, Giant’s Diva.

Meanwhile, the other Americans, horses overseas-based since January 1, are already in the island, including Nunes’ other aspirant, TIK TOK, who has been training at Caymanas Park but yet to face the starter.

Among the foreign invaders are PACK PLAYS, who made a smashing debut at six and a half furlongs on September 21 but lost his stirrup in an anticlimatic clash with fellow importee DESERT OF MALIBU in last Saturday’s six-furlong Port Royal Sprint.

Of the other foreigners champing at the bit for a shot at the Caribbean’s richest purse, defending champion Rohan Crichton’s pair of LEGACY ISLE and COMMANDANT stepped off the plane yesterday and will spend two weeks in quarantine at Plumb Point, leaving their connections with only nine days to make the Mouttet Mile.