Ronron blows away Double The Honey

Orville Clarke, Gleaner Writer

The crack American three-year-old filly RONRON won her highly anticipated clash with the previously unbeaten American colt DOUBLE THE HONEY in the $1 million Seek Exercise Book Trophy over 1300 metres at Caymanas Park yesterday.

Despite the hype surrounding the two principals, both rising stars of local racing, the valuable open allowance race turned out to be anti-climatic.

The Gary Subratie trained RONRON, ridden by Paul 'Country' Francis for owner Kenval Wallace, ran away from rivals early in the straight to win by

2³/_⁴ lengths from the outsiders SKITTLE QUEEN

(34-1) with female apprentice Georgina Sergeon aboard and MACHISMO (19-1), ridden by top apprentice Aaron Chatrie.

After a ding-dong battle for favouritism between RONRON and the Wayne DaCosta-trained DOUBLE THE HONEY, the betting made RONRON a 3-4 marginal favourite over topweight DOUBLE THE HONEY at 4-5 under champion jockey Omar Walker.

Scorching runs

RONRON, seeking his fifth consecutive win, broke smartly from the number one post position, but as they sorted themselves out, it was DOUBLE THE HONEY and the fleet-footed native bred filly BRASH & SASSY (18-1) who hooked up in a blistering speed duel, just ahead of RONRON on the rails. They went a scorching 22.3 for the first quarter, 45.3 for the half mile and 1:10.1 for the first 1200 metres.

This set it up nicely for RONRON, who came three wide with her challenge approaching the home turn. She stuck to the front as they swung into the straight, after which the issue was never in doubt as she moved away to win in the fairly good time of 1:18.

DOUBLE THE HONEY weakened dramatically in the straight to finish a floundering fifth, suffering his first defeat from six starts in the process.

An elated Subratie said he had no doubt that RONRON would rebound from her only two defeats to DOUBLE THE HONEY early in the season by winning this re-match.

Impressive run for Ronron

"Ronron is a different horse from them and, despite a setback in her preparation some weeks ago due to an infection, worked so impressively for his race that I knew she would take Double The Honey to school.

"She can sprint and she can stay. Wait until she gets a distant of ground and you'll see how good she really is. I would say she is potentially the best horse in the country," said the second generation trainer.

On a day when the established jockeys ended the dominance of the apprentices in recent weeks, Francis stole the show with three winners in RONRON, 2-5 favourite SHE'S SMOKIN for trainer Philip Feanny in the third race and Ryan Darby's WAIT AWHILE at 6-1 in the eighth race over 1200 metres.

Champion Omar Walker, who leaves the island today for Trinidad to ride PROUD KENTUCKIAN in Tuesday's Independence Cup at Santa Rosa, rode two winners, as did Dane Nelson, while former champion Shane Ellis won the fourth aboard 2-1 chance SLEDGE.