Money Monster dominates Alsafra Trophy
Published:Sunday | June 12, 2022 | 12:13 AMAinsley Walters - Gleaner Writer
MONEY MONSTER reported in unbeatable fashion yesterday, making every post a winning one at a mile to upstage four-year-olds MINIATURE MAN and AMY THE BUTCHER in the Alsafra Trophy, a non-restricted overnight allowance event.
A long-time but hard-to-train overnight-allowance resident, five-year-old MONEY MONSTER had hinted at his return to form in his previous race, chasing home out-of-class DOUBLE DIVA at seven furlongs, beaten four and a quarter lengths, finishing ahead of EROY, another highly thought of importee.
Breaking sharply with Reyan Lewis, Fitzroy Glispie’s MONEY MONSTER led United States-bred AWESOME TREASURE down the backstretch with 3-5 favourite MINIATURE MAN making his bid from third three furlongs out.
MONEY MONSTER swung into the lane and quickened in a 1:11.3 third-quarter split, which proved too strong for topweight AWESOME TREASURE and MINIATURE MAN, whose run flattened a furlong and a half out.
Ridden out by Lewis, MONEY MONSTER responded and maintained his gallop to beat a game AWESOME TREASURE by two and a half lengths. MINIATURE MAN finished a further two and a half lengths away, securing third ahead of AMY THE BUTCHER, who had straightened fifth before outbattling BIG BIG DADDY for fourth, winning in 1:38.4.
MAJOR UPSETTER
The testy nine-race card sprung a major upsetter and a disqualification, which led to a Reggae 6 carryover of $5.9 million to next Saturday’s meet.
DUKE OF SPRINGS’ disqualification in the third event handed the five-furlong round race to 8-1 shot TOUGHNESS. This was followed by mild upsetters in the next two events, HOT ICE and COMMISSIONER, winning at odds of 4-1 and 5-1, respectively.
In the sixth at five furlongs round, 1-2 favourite SWEETYMAN was slowly away and never in the hunt as 14-1 stunner, ROCKET LILY, relegated by QUIET BOSS after breaking on top, ran through along the rail entering the straight to send bets crashing.
Dane Dawkins reduced Anthony Thomas’ lead atop the jockeys’ standings to two winners, landing the eighth event with Richard Azan’s JOSH, who beat three-year-old maidens at six furlongs.