Allegiance dominates Funcaandun Trophy
ALLEGIANCE, trained Anthony “Baba” Nunes, continued to show improvement in his runs after delivering an encouraging performance in the $1.19-million Funcaandun Trophy on Saturday, February 22, 2025.
The highly competitive Restricted Stakes contest for imported three-year-olds and upward (non-winners of three) and native-bred three-year-olds and four-year-olds (non-winners of four) was run over one mile (1,600m). Allegiance won the race by 6¼ lengths in a time of 1:41.3, with splits of 25.0 x 48.1 x 1:14.4.
Ridden by Reyan Lewis, Allegiance broke well from the starting gate and settled into a comfortable second place behind Unruly Mo, piloted by Dane Dawkins, as the field approached the intersection and the seven-furlong (1,400m) pole.
As the race unfolded, Allegiance maintained a steady gallop down the backstretch, biding his time before making a powerful move to take the lead approaching the half-mile (800m) turn. From there, Allegiance cruised to an effortless victory. Mack and Rome, ridden by Raddesh Roman, finished second while
Ms Cherry, piloted by Ismael Velasquez, took third place. This win marked Allegiance’s fourth career victory from 17 starts, with earnings now exceeding $4.1 million in Stakes.
Allegiance is a four-year-old chestnut colt bred by Midnight Hawk out of the Royal Minister mare Princess Geeta.