Jockey Antonio Perch took to a muddy Garrison Savannah track like a fish to water by landing a hat-trick in testing conditions that went from good to soft with intermittent showers yesterday.
The final victory will long be cherished, as he won the feature event with Apparition, which turned away Wild Cat Tea in the first match race at the track in more than three decades on the Hall Of Fame Raceday, the first day of the Barbados Turf Club’s 2018 season.
The pair held the attention of the sizeable crowd up until the homestretch battle in the J.A.K. Tony Archer Memorial Handicap over 1 100 metres.
After an even break, Wild Cat Tea briefly pushed his head in front going past the five-furlong pole. However, Apparition gained the lead on the inside as the duo approached the three-furlong marker. They raced stride for stride for the next two furlongs with little to separate them. As they swung for home, Perch got more out of Apparition while Wild Cat Tea had little to offer jockey Delano Lopez in the closing stages.
Owned by Stephen Jardine and the Estate of Andrew Jardine, Apparition had something in reserve at the end, as the crowd applauded her galloping across the winning line.
The last match race at the Savannah was in October 1988 when Pavlova met Trinity Hall.Â
Perch first acquainted himself with the winner’s enclosure in the fifth race, the Fred Bethel Memorial Handicap, in which the Philip Batson-owned and trained mare Midnite Chick kept her colours clean when making all the running from the inside draw. (LY)
