REIGNING Horse of the Year Nipster opened his four-year-old winning account, the third time asking, by smashing a raft of capable, Open Allowance, three-year-old and upwards runners by three lengths to win the Saint Cecelia Cup feature over 6 ½ furlongs at Caymanas Park on Saturday, May 15.

The four-year-old bay son of Casual Trick – Nippit, conditioned by champion trainer Anthony Nunes and sent off as the 2/1 second favourite, showed his rivals clean hooves after turning up the lane to clock a tidy 1:19.2 time for the distance – chasing early fractions of 23.1 x 46.3 x 1:12.2.

Trevor’s Choice at odds of 46/1, trained by Alford Brown, led adventurously to hold on for second money under three-time champion jockey Shane Ellis in the 11-horse field. Crimson, a former stablemate of Nipster ridden by Tevin Foster, finished third as a 99/1 chance.

“It was a reassuring performance from the maturing colt but, first of all, I want to thank Mr Bernard [owner] for his patience, because when you have a horse of the year and you run him the first time for the year and he ran disappointingly, then you strat to think, but we knew that he wanted the run after the lay-off. He then returned to be beaten once again, this time by his stablemate Oneofakind, after giving lumps of weight all-round to rivals – a situation which could have contributed largely to the disappointing run.

“For this race, he certainly trained really well and obliged with a beautiful winning performance. Thank you, Mr Bernard, for giving us the time and patience to work things out with him [ Nipster]. He is obviously the horse of the year and a true champion but, I still think that it is a little rough on him to be giving up weight of three to four kilogrammes to some good horses.

“Nonetheless, today [Saturday] Nipster showed why he is the horse of the year as he has what it takes to be a versatile competitor. Once he stays healthy and sound,” Nunes pointed out, “he will continue to give of his best as his win over 1300 metres was not the ideal trip for him.”