Three hit Pick-9 jackpot

Orville Clarke, Gleaner Writer

After eluding punters for 12 consecutive racedays, the Pick-9 was caught by three lucky punters at Caymanas Park yesterday, each receiving a whopping $7.9 million.

With a carryover of $17.5 million from Wednesday's meet, Pick-9 sales went through the roof prior to the start of the second race as punters, big and small, pushed sales past the $10 million mark.

In the end, $23.8 million was up for grabs on the moderately supported 10-race programme, and despite upsets by GO SAM GO at 7-1 under female apprentice Georgina Sergeon in the third race, LUX at 13-1 in the seventh and THE VALIDICTORIAN at 12-1 in the eighth, it was destined to be caught with three-five star bankers in the stable companions CLASSY COMPANY and CLASSY PROSPECT as well as THAT'S MY MARKET winning.

Nail in the coffin

Following the facile victory of THE VALIDICTORIAN (Peter Bryan up) in the three-year-old race over 1600 metres, many punters were hoping that would have been the final nail in the coffin. And when run-on sprinter RIGGED TO WIN stormed through to win the ninth at odds of 7-2, nearly all were convinced that the Pick-9 would survive the day's racing.

But little did they know that a handful of punters were still alive going into the last race over 1820 metres and it would be caught if either the odds-on favourite OVATION (Winston Grffiths up) or the 4-1 second favourite CRUISER (Trevor Simpson) was to win. After coming through approaching the final bend, the Tensang Chung-trained OVATION stayed on well in the closing stages to win by 1³/⁴ lengths from the well-backed CORBA with CRUISER third.

As a result of the Pick-9 frenzy, the day's turnover settled at $35.5 million which, according to CTL's acting CEO and director of marketing Chris Armond, was "very, very good".

Although proving elusive since mid-April, yesterday's Pick-9 payout fell well short of the record $46.9 shared by seven punters ($6.7 million each) on Saturday, July 26, 2008. That Pick-9 survived for 18 consecutive racedays.

Meanwhile, THAT'S MY MARKET, running as the 1-2 favourite with Oneil Mullings aboard, overcame interference at the start to complete a hat-trick of wins in the Drumbeat Trophy (claiming $180,000) feature race over the straight-five course.

Owned by Raphael Gordon, the six-year-old gelding from the stables of Ryan Darby held on grimly by a short head from the fast-finishing 8-1 chance MISTER OFFICER under two-time champion jockey Joe Buchanan.

Later in the afternoon, Ryan's father, Robert Darby Sr, posted the remarkable 9-y-o grey gelding NASATOL (Mullings up) to his 27th career win in the sixth race, again over the straight. It was NASATOL's sixth win so far this season and he's now seven wins away from equalling the all-time record of 34 held by MASTER BLASTER, who retired in 2001.