Sheer Delight’s time to shine

HAVING spent four months in open allowance, a total of three races, including second- and third-place finishes behind grade-one horses, SHEER DELIGHT has served the mandatory three-month jail time, earning parole to overnight allowance, facing 11 rivals in Sunday’s Kenneth Mattis Memorial at nine furlongs and 25 yards.

Runner-up to fellow American RIDEALLDAY in the Poorlittlerichgirl a month ago, four-year-old SHEER DELIGHT, among the foreigners imported for last December’s Mouttet Mile, has won two races from 11 starts locally.

The winner of back-to-back races at Tampa Bay in the spring of last year, maiden claiming and claiming, SHEER DELIGHT debuted locally in October, getting two third-place finishes under his girth among local non-winners of four races.

RAINSVILLE and SUPREMASI, two of the 11 rivals SHEER DELIGHT faces, had finished ahead of him in his first two races on local soil. However, returning with blinkers and figure-eight fitted mid-November, a much sharper SHEER DELIGHT humbled Jamaica Derby third-place CAPTAIN SPARROW at nine furlongs and 25 yards.

Since beating CAPTAIN SPARROW, SHEER DELIGHT has faced tough company, trailing home in the Mouttet Mile three weeks later. Earlier this season, he was outsped but not disgraced by fellow Americans surfing through overnight allowance, TIZ TOK, WALL STREET TRADER and FEARLESS FORCE, who he allowed 20lb at seven furlongs.

In a race void of out-of-class Americans, SHEER DELIGHT made use of the reprieve to beat local-bred RHYTHM BUZZ at a mile in 1:39.3, booking a ticket to open allowance on April 26.

After three runs in open allowance, finishing six lengths behind outlet Mile winner and Horse of the Year FUNCAANDUN at nine furlongs and 25 yards, his first effort at the level, SHEER DELIGHT returns to the scene of his overnight-allowance crime, nine furlongs and 25 yards.

Sharpened by his second-place run behind RIDEALLDAY, clearly best of the rest at a trip short of his best, SHEER DELIGHT ought to stamp his class and staying power on the Kenneth Mattis.

A fast pace is expected with MOJITO playing rabbit for RAINSVILLE, NEO STAR teeing up SUPREMASI and GEOLITHIC setting fractions for stablemates D HEAD CORNERSTONE. The pace should play into SHEER DELIGHT’s running style, a stalking closer, who stays the trip.