THE BOMBER, ridden by in-form apprentice Javour Simpson who lost control of the reins in the last furlong and resorted to holding the horse's mane, scrambles home by a short head from 4-5 favourite CALABASH BAY (Omar Walker) in the ninth race over 1200 metres for open allowance horses at Caymanas Park on Saturday. The June 2 Derby winner had to survive a Stewards' inquiry - Colin hamilton/Freelance photogrpaher

The floodgates were opened at Caymanas Park on Saturday as there were an unusually high number of winners of the exotic bets.

With six favourites obliging on the 10-race programme, the $1.5 million Pick-9, which proved elusive on the previous Saturday, failed to survive the afternoon's racing.

There were 96 winners, each receiving $16,985. Not bad on a day when the horses ran true to form.

Not surprisingly, the Super-6 produced a lot more winners - 904 - each receiving $1,225.00.

The Pick-9 races saw six winning favourites, including the day's five-star banker BACK POCKET at 1-2 in the sixth race over the straight for maiden three-year-olds.

Bankers

Other winning horses widely used as bankers were PRINCESS LORNA at 4-5 in the fourth race, HEZA RANKING at evens in the fourth and THE QUEEN (4-5), who had to survive a Steward's inquiry in the seventh race for two-year-olds.

Owing to the easy nature of the programme, many punters won the Super-6 for the first time. And the multitude would have been much larger had the 4-5 favourite CALABASH BAY, widely used as a banker in the ninth race for open allowance horses, not been beaten a short head by this year's Derby winner, THE BOMBER, in a tremendous head bobbing finish over 1200 metres.

Ridden by hot apprentice Javour Simpson who was notching his 10th winner in the past four race days, THE BOMBER shot into the lead at the half-mile and after turning for home a clear leader, held on grimly by a short head from fast-finishing CALABASH BAY, with another title-chasing apprentice Omar Walker aboard.

CALABASH BAY suffered slight interference from THE BOMBER when the latter shot into the lead at the half-mile, cutting down sharply from the outside in the process. In the end he showed good battling qualities to win by a hair's breadth.

It was the consensus of opinion that THE BOMBER should have been disqualified and the race awarded to CALABASH BAY, who was a bit unlucky. But the stewards thought otherwise and allowed the result to stand.

Credit

One has to give credit to Javour Simpson who, despite losing control of his reins in the last furlong, brought home THE BOMBER by hanging on to the horse's mane (the stretch of hair on the horse's neck) over the last 100 metres in a truly courageous and skilful display. Maybe, just maybe, the stewards took that into consideration and gave him the green light.

If anything, THE BOMBER has proved that the current crop of three-year-olds are not so bad after all.

Racing against older horses for the first time, the lightly raced bay colt by Outrigger out of Nuttin But Red showed his mettle by winning in open allowance company and with Lotto Classic (Governor's Cup) winner IL CAIMANO having done so as well in the Nigel B. Nunes Memorial Trophy some weeks ago, we shouldn't be too hard on them, this despite RUM TALK's failure at the same level in the recent Owen Silvera Memorial Cup.

- Orville Clarke