No stopping classy Desert of Malibu

DESERT OF MALIBU returning in tomorrow’s Reggae Month Trophy at five furlongs straight, picking up a paltry five pounds, is the proverbial slap in the face that the condition book presents when ‘races won’ are measured by quantity instead of quality.

An out-of-class display in the St Catherine Cup, spotting the field a dozen, or more, lengths at six furlongs - 13 lengths behind at the half-mile marker - before reeling in MADELYN’S SUNSHINE, rubber-stamped DESERT OF MALIBU’s status as a grade-one horse, who would not have been off the board had she competed in the Mouttet Mile.

Having won her first two races at five furlongs straight from post-positions two and three, respectively, unless consideration is given to DESERT OF MALIBU’s poor start last out, it will take a brave punter to oppose her breaking from mid-gate in a seven-horse line-up.

MADELYN’S SUNSHINE, the horse that featured in the only blot in DESERT OF MALIBU’s playbook, her disqualification on Mouttet Mile Day for interference at the half-mile marker, has risen a pound in the scale - effectively a four-pound ‘advantage’ at the handicaps - after giving up a 13-length lead in the St Catherine Cup.

If that wasn’t enough, EMPEROROFTHECATS, who never got a whiff of the lead in the St Catherine Cup while finishing third, was somehow allotted 126lb, sharing a five-pound ‘penalty’ with DESERT OF MALIBU after finishing six and a half lengths behind the United States-bred mare, forcing Carl Anderson to call in seven-pound claimer Richard Henry.

On the face of the weight allotments for the Reggae Month Trophy, it appears as though the St Catherine Cup never happened, a race won in 1:12.3 by DESERT OF MALIBU, who closed 13 lengths off cracking splits of 22.2, 34.0, 46.1 and 58.4.