Trainer Roger Parravicino reached his milestone of 200 winners in grand style yesterday as his speed sensation Seattle Sunshine took the Inyouvations Trophy Handicap over 1 100 metres.
However, pride of place on the seven-race card in the Barbados Turf Club’s (BTC) Racing Fraternity Race Day at the Garrison Savannah was shared by the duo of rider Ricky Walcott and breeder Geoffrey Bynoe as both starred on the ninth day of the second racing season.
The victory by the Joanne Parravicino-owned Seattle Sunshine and Walcott was their fifth consecutive one as a pair in the event for three-year-old horses rated 87-110 and also open to horses rated 86 and below.
It crowned a fine day for title-chasing jockey Walcott as it gave him three winners on the card.
Seattle Sunshine left the gates like a rocket and was briefly joined by Iamsogroovy. With the others still trying to find their feet on the good-to-soft conditions that prevailed, Walcott would eventually send his charge to the front.
Turning for home, Vitality appeared from among the back markers to issue a challenge under jockey Jalon Samuel. But he simply could not get by the daughter of Hook and Ladder out of Savasana, and finished in the second position, just failing by half a length.
Lune De Barachois came from a long way back under apprentice Damario Bynoe to secure third place, while Iamsogroovy, with Antonio Whitehall, took the fourth spot.
Walcott’s first trip to the winner’s enclosure came in Race 2, the BTC Owners and Trainers Handicap over 1 570 metres for horses rated 55-75.
There he made all the running with Zaltarr. Zaltarr would be the first of three winners on the card for breeder Geoffrey Bynoe.
On what could easily be one of his more memorable racing days for a very long time, Bynoe celebrated immediately as the Jane Girls-owned Cinnamon Jane impressively took the BTC Members Handicap over 1 800 metres for horses rated 80-100 and also open to horses rated 79.
He teamed up again with Walcott, this time aboard Sirius Black, to take the BTC Registered Grooms Handicap over 1 100 metres for non-winners of three and non-West Indian-bred maidens.
Victor Cheeseman maintained his lead in the trainer’s table as he recorded a double strike, moving his winner’s column to 22, having scored with Zaltarr and Sirius Black.
Also recording a pair of wins on the card was trainer Andrew Nunes. Having notched his first of the day with Cinnamon Jane, he climaxed the afternoon’s proceedings with a win by the 12-to-one outsider Memory Lane, owned by Sir Charles Williams.
The racing season continues on September 14.
