Legacy Isles romps slimming None Such Sprint field

EARLY NON-RUNNERS, DESERT OF MALIBU and WALL STREET TRADER, reduced yesterday’s None Such Sprint to a four-horse field at the mercy of fellow United States-bred LEGACY ISLE, who toyed with PACK PLAYS for three furlongs before scoring an anti-climatic three-length win as a 3-5 favourite ahead of IS THAT A FACT.

A plethora of races for a handful of grade-one horses, most unable to remain sound, or allowed to race in the lower open-allowance class on byes from the condition book, helped turn the six-furlong None Such into a farce, last year’s Mouttet Mile runner-up, LEGACY ISLE, winning eased down in 1:12.0, handing champion and leading rider Raddesh Roman his second winner on the nine-race card.

DESERT OF MALIBU, who last raced July 26, losing the seven-furlong She’s A Maneater by a short head, hardly trained for the defence of her None Such title, similarly WALL STREET TRADER, who had stunned LEGACY ISLE at odds of 16-1 in the Hall of Fame Stakes, July 12, giving rise to the question of whether there should be mandatory veterinary checks of all horses after nomination for race programmes, not only runners who would have been on the vet’s list prior.

Roman, a lonely leader at the top of the jockeys’ standings, moved to 98 winners after earlier being handed the third race astride HIGH DIPLOMACY on the disqualification of WILSON, partnered by Aaron Chatrie, whose magnetic attraction to the rail, though straightening last and widest, resulted in interference while pulling clear inside the last half-furlong.

Claiming rider Demar Williams matched Roman’s two-timer, powering home 2000-Guineas fourth-place STRONG MIND at five and a half furlongs to close the $54,613 Reggae 6 at odds of 5-2, switching lanes inside the final furlong to avoid leader T SWIZZLE being drifted into his path by journeyman Ian Spence.

Williams closed the programme with an equally impressive ride aboard United States-bred sprinter, 9-5 chance BULLETPROOFCOFFEE, who fought off 99-1 stunner, native runner JOHNCROWJEFF at five furlongs straight, hanging on by a neck in the event for non-winners of an overnight-allowance race.

LEGACY ISLE was the most-backed of four winning favourites, LION OF EKATI springing to life at odds of 9-1 with Reyan Lewis in the second event, results which only one Pick-9 bettor was able to spot for a mandatory $3.2 million payout.

Racing continues this afternoon with a mandatory Strike 4 payout, races six to nine, opening at $1.39 million.