Palace Guard obliges

Orville Clarke, Gleaner Writer

PALACE GUARD, racing for the first time, duly justified the 3-5 favouritism with a smooth victory in the round-five Winnie Anglin Memorial Cup feature for maiden two-year-old fillies, at Caymanas Park yesterday.

One of two winners for in-form jockey Dane Nelson on the nine-race card, PALACE GUARD, who is trained by ex-jockey Fitzroy 'Pumpkin' Glispie, raced prominently in fourth as the debutante ROYAL COMMANDER (20-1), with Shane Ellis aboard, and SKIPPING MICHELLE (4-1), disputed the lead in a field of 14.

Both turned for home marginally ahead of PALACE GUARD, who quickly went into overdrive. Splitting horses leaving the quarter-pole, she opened up on ROYAL COMMANDER approaching the distance and kept on well to beat her by 13/4 lengths, in the reasonably good time of 1:01.1.

ROYAL COMMANDER, who is trained by Percy Hussey for his mom, Ruth, held her gallop well to finish 41/4 lengths clear of 68-1 outsider NEVER GIVE UP, coming from a long way behind.

Owned and bred by Hayden Thomas, PALACE GUARD is a chestnut filly by Region Of Merit out of the Royal Minister mare, Royal Guard.

Bred for speed

Glispie said she is bred for speed and he was pretty confident she would win first time of asking.

"We waited patiently and she has confirmed our high opinion of her. She can only improve from race to race and it will be interesting to see how she develops in the months ahead," said the former top-flight jockey, who rode three Derby winners in LEGAL LIGHT (1977), ZELL (1978) and BLACK KNIGHT (1980).

Earlier in the afternoon, the remarkable nine-year-old grey gelding, NASATOL, chalked up his 29th career win and his eighth of the season in the second race - claiming $450,000-$420,000- over the straight-five course.

Ridden by in-form Panamanian jockey, Dick Cardenas, for trainer Dennis Lee and his wife Faye, NASATOL, a 4-5 favourite, disputed the lead with highly fancied TOP COMMANDER (2-1) coming on to the main track and soon quickened away on the stands side to win by a length from 11-1 chance FREE FALL in a field of 10.

Bred by Kim Cooper, NASATOL is now joint second on the all-time list of most winners, joining the legendary sprinter EROS. The Pat N Jac-Extraordinaire offspring, who is the winningest horse so far this season, is now five wins adrift of equalling the record for most wins, held by MASTER BLASTER since 2002.