Further and Beyond pips Mahogany in Seeking My Dream Trophy
FURTHER and Beyond, despite not being as dominant as before, displayed a devastating turn-of-foot in deep stretch to collar the well-decorated Mahogany on the line in the $1.4-million Seeking My Dream Trophy, the main event on Saturday’s nine-race programme.
Trained by Donovan Hutchinson and ridden by Raddesh Roman,
Further and Beyond got the better of Mahogany by three-parts of a length in the Open Allowance contest for three-year-olds and upward over seven and a half furlongs (1,500m). The former Horse of the Year, Further and Beyond clocked 1:33.2 (23.0 x 45.4 x 1:11.4) for his second win of the season from five starts.
Further and Beyond broke off well behind the leaders and settled among the backmarkers as Mamma Mia (Josue Osorio) and Mahogany (Reyan Lewis) blazed the early trail. Both Mamma Mia and Mahogany maintained their pace and galloped well down the backstretch, and then began to separate themselves from the rest of the field in what seemed like a two-horse race leaving the five-furlong marker.
With four furlongs to go Further and Beyond was fifth in the six-horse field and seemingly going nowhere, but he quickly surrounded horses approaching the top of the lane under an aggressive Roman and advanced to third place behind Mahogany and Mamma Mia.
The six-year-old chestnut horse responded to Roman’s urgings with a strong stretch run to beat Mahogany at the wire. Mamma Mia did well to hold onto third place, some four lengths adrift of the top two.
Further and Beyond is bred by Blue Pepsi Lodge out of the Graeme Hall super mare Rumble.
It was the second winner on the day for Roman who had earlier booted home
MPRS Links for trainer Barrington Bernard in the fourth race.
Trainer Gary Griffiths and jockey Jerome Innis also had two winners on the card.
Griffiths saddled Brinks (Oshane Nugent) in the second race and El Afortunado in the eighth race, ridden by Innis. Innis had also won earlier aboard Power of Faith in the fifth race for trainer Donovan Plummer, for his two winners.
Racing continues today with another nine-race card; the post time is 12:15 pm.