Foster rides high with five-timer

TEVIN Foster rode three winners in the first five races, impacting the day’s $36,283 Reggae 6 payout, enroute to a five-timer on Saturday’s 10-race card.

Predicted to be a tough Reggae 6 to decipher, the opening event was won by 7-1 mild upsetter, nine-year-old SILENT CAT, beating 8-5 favourite DIAMOND ROCK, bettors shaken early by the longest shot on the Reggae 6.

The third event, two-year-olds racing for the first time, which Reggae 6 players were forewarned of in the WEEKEND’s STAR article, was true to form. Champion trainer Jason DaCosta’s longest shot of a trio of starters in the six-horse field, BOSS OVER BOSS, won at odds of 6-1.

Foster and claiming rider Eric Haughton, who won the opener astride SILENT CAT, returning to land the sixth with 9-5 favourite, FOR MY LOVE, accounted for the remaining Reggae 6 races.

Foster, who roused DaCosta’s LONDON SPIRIT to win Thursday’s Jamaica Derby by a nose, partnered MODERN MONARCH, MONEY BOX and PRINCESS FIANIE in the second, fourth and fifth races, respectively, before landing VICTORIOUS LINKS and SKYRIZI in the seventh and eighth.

Signalling his intent for another shot at the title held by Raddesh Roman since their see-saw battle two years ago, decided in the last race of the year, Foster served notice on the sidelined, two-time defending champion, pulling ahead by one win in the jockeys’ standings after booting home his handful of winners.

Meanwhile, United States-bred COMMANDER Z produced a stunning 11-1 reversal of form - coming off double-digit losses in his last four races - to outclass DaCosta’s local-breds, I DREAM AGAIN and STARRAURA, with a one-and-a-quarter length win in the Kaz Hoshay Trophy at five and a half furlongs.

Closing the 10-race card, COMMANDER Z left the widest draw, stall 14, in the overnight-allowance event like a bat out of hell with journeyman Ian Spence, shooting to the lead a half-mile out past I DREAM AGAIN and STARRAURA.

The American, who reported off a six-month lay-up last Saturday, finishing eighth at five furlongs round behind ANOTHER ONE, held his gallop strongly ahead of I DREAM AGAIN and STARRAURA, the stablemates chasing relentlessly to the winning post.

COMMANDER Z’s winning time, 1:06.0, bettered MCMULLEN’s 1:06.1, clocked by his fellow American, who won the previous race, his second start on local soil, after winning at Gulfstream Park, Florida, last December.

Racing continues Saturday before the following week’s Saturday-Sunday meet to close August.