Salah closes late to collar Tricky One
Second-generation trainer Stephen Todd continues to hold fast as one of the most improved trainers around after posting his three-year-old chestnut colt Salah to a comprehensive win over fellow three-year-old colt, the Classic-performing Tricky One over one mile (1,600m) on Wednesday’s (September 25, 2019) midweek card at Caymanas Park.
Tricky One, trained by the leading conditioner Anthony Nunes, also a second-generation trainer, was runner-up twice to stablemate and current Triple Crown winner Supreme Soul in the Governor’s Cup and the Jamaica Derby.
Midweek, though, in sloppy underfoot conditions, Tricky One was stopped in his tracks short of his second career win, from a tenacious late run from Salah in a Restricted Allowance II call for native-bred, three-year-old non-winners of two and imported three-year-old and upward maidens, for the major share of the $900,000 purse on offer.
The stirring victory will now schedule Salah upwards to compete in non-winners of three in his next competitive start.
It was a win of note for Todd and it did not leave him speechless, as he was motivated by the effort of conditioning his charge to defeat one of the highly accredited top-performing three-year-olds of the just-concluded classic season.
He told Supreme Racing Guide that he was pleased with Salah‘s effort.
“To beat a top-performing horse coming out of the classic leaves one with a certain sense of satisfaction. Tricky One placed in the classics and to prepare a horse that had just won his maiden race and one that had not been showing much and get him to beat Tricky One leaves you with a nice feeling. I must not leave the rider out of this achievement. He did a fantastic job in contributing towards achieving this victory. I gave him certain instructions and he executed those instructions with authoritative commitment.
“He did a tremendous job and he was perfect. Salah is a horse that likes to come from off the pace, likes a nice, fast pace and he is going to close at you real hard. All that we were hoping for is that coming from behind he gets a nice space in which to manoeuvre. He did just that and everything just worked out well,” Todd said.