Day Star a safe banker in race eight

Orville Clarke, Gleaner Writer

With QUIET KNIGHT (10-1), LIGHTNING IMAGE (8-1) and GRANDE MARQUE (7-1) providing the upsets, both the Pick-9 and overlapping Super-6 had no takers at Caymanas Park last Saturday.

The Pick-9, to be conducted from race three to 11, boasts a $2.7 million carryover to tomorrow's programme, while there is a carryover of $990,000 to the second Super-6 tomorrow.

We look at the second Super-6 on the Supreme Ventures-sponsored Lotto Raceday 11-race programme featuring the 71st running of the Lotto Classic (Governor's Cup) for native bred three-year-olds over 2000 metres. This, the 10th race on the card, has attracted 14 starters, including top contenders HERMOSO AMIGO, JUSTIN ON FIRE, TECHNOMOTO, ERASMO and JET SETTER.

The overlapping Super-6 commences in the sixth race, the Lotto Dream Trophy three-year-old maiden special (Division I) over 1200 metres, to be contested by the maximum 16 starters.

With this race having a rather open look about it, we believe the winner will come from a group comprising DEFENDIT, RHEA-MARIE, MY GIRL NALA, NEVER GIVE UP and the debutante CANDACE.

my girl nala looking good

The Lawrence Freemantle-trained MY GIRL NALA stayed on well to finish 1¹/² lengths third to QUEEN INDIRA and subsequent winner LIGHTNING IMAGE over the round-five course on April 30. That was only her second outing and having looked improved at exercise since, should stave off the late-kicking NEVER GIVE UP, who was just behind in fourth in that race.

Next on the programme is the $1.4 million Lotto Sprint Trophy to be contested by five starters, including top-rated RONRON, DOUBLE THE HONEY (working well) and reigning champion sprinter SAINT CECELIA, who won this race a year ago in stakes record time.

The Gary Subratie-trained RONRON, who beat SAINT CECELIA into second place when they last met over 1200 metres on February 16, is arguably the best horse in the country, having won eight of her last nine races. With SAINT CECELIA and DOUBLE THE HONEY expected to engage each other in a terrific speed duel, I am expecting both to play into the hands of the very classy RONRON under leading jockey Shane Ellis.

DAY STAR, who beat all barring the smart-looking MERU on her recent debut over 1100 metres, should go one better in the eighth race, Division II of the Lotto Dream Trophy, with 15 declared.

In the ninth for the Lotto Championship Trophy (claiming $180,000) over 1200 metres, hat-trick seeker DOLLA WIN, now dropped in class, gets the nod over back-to-form SIR VALIANT in a full field of 16.

In the Lotto Classic, the lightly raced but highly thought of HERMOSO AMIGO, a half-brother to the 2009 Superstakes winner HOMBRE, bids for the hat-trick in this Derby prep, and back in action with only 53.0kg (Doushane Gordon up), the Noel Ennevor-trained three-year-old colt is preferred to JUSTIN AND FIRE and ERASMO, second and third, respectively, to BIG MAN BOYU in the 2000 Guineas on April 2. And THE MESSENGER, who bypassed the Lotto Classic, should make no mistake in the closing Lotto Rush Trophy over 1300 metres.

SECOND SUPER-6 FANCIES

(6) MY GIRL NALA/NEVER GIVE UP

(7) RONRON/SAINT CECELIA

(8) DAY STAR

(9) DOLLA WIN/SIR VALIANT

(10) HERMOSO AMIGO/JUSTIN ON FIRE

(11) THE MESSENGER/RED FLAG