Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer

With only one favourite in Time Of My Life obliging at Caymanas Park on Saturday, the Pick-9 not surprisingly eluded punters once again.

As a result, the carryover to tomorrow's Ash Wednesday meet stands at $3.2 million.

With heavy betting anticipated on the 11-race holiday programme, a payout in excess of $4.5 million looks a real possibility.

Meanwhile, only one punter was good enough to nail the Super-6, walking away with just under $1 million - $984,946.50 to be exact.

Although the card produced no major upset, the fact that five short-priced favourites were trounced left the Pick-9 in shambles.

Three punters with eight of nine winners each received $100,528.00, while 96 with seven of nine picked up $1,571.00.

With howling favourites such as YOSHI, CAPTAIN BONE, TAKE FIVE, ROBIN'S BAY and, of course, SO BLESSED failing to oblige, most punters left Caymanas Park dejected.

SO BLESSED at 2-5 in the feature Hot Line Stakes was the heaviest to fall. The three-year-old filly, who is a half sister to two-time 'Horse of the Year' MIRACLE MAN, finished a floundering last in the eight-strong field, breaking down in the process.

She was slowly into stride from the dreaded number one post position and never looked likely to land a blow, even when improving into fourth position leaving the half mile.

The winner, RIO INFINITO (6-1), completed a three-timer for co-champion apprentice Carlton Malcolm on the nine-race programme.

The promising 26-year-old is making his mark as a deadly come-from-behind jockey and his three winners - LITTLE SNOW JOHN, GRACE MARIE and RIO INFINITO - all responded to well-timed rides to win their respective races from behind.

In addition to the Gary Subratie-trained RIO INFINITO, the other notable upset was provided by the mile and quarter specialist MANISH at 8-1 in the sixth race.

Here, the down-in-class CAPTAIN BONE was all the rage at 4-5, but after leading under pressure from MICHAEL POWER and THE MAGICIAN into the straight, was left standing when jockey Kerry Perry produced MANISH with a devastating stretch run early in the last furlong.

Perry, who was one of the better apprentices from the 1999 batch of Jockeys' School graduates, which included Ramon Parish and Kenyatta Davis, has been struggling to get rides these days. But he looked as good as Trevor Simpson or Wesley Henry would aboard MANISH and deserves the support of owners and trainers, especially for one who still rides pretty light.