Storm Bird wins Metro-Million-Mile race

Kennard Memorial Turf Club Boxing Day Horse Meet…

Story and Photos by Brandon Corlette

The race horse Storm Bird of the Rising Sun Racing Stables won the Metro-Million-Mile event of the Kennard Memorial Turf Club’s Boxing Day Meet at Bush Lot Farm, Corentyne, Berbice, gifting its handlers with the biggest ever winner’s purse in local horse racing, and earning for itself the accolade of champion horse of this action-packed one-day event.

In this feature event of the meet, which was run under overcast conditions late on Thursday afternoon, hundreds were taken by surprise as Storm Bird, piloted by a Trinidadian jockey named Razack, seemed to be powered by an additional cylinder as it finished the one-mile Open race comfortably ahead of all opposition.
Golden Blue Echo rode in second, and Settling Star came in third; but the horse most favoured for this lucrative and historic event, Lucky Star, had to settle for fourth position.
The Meet commenced with the race for horses classified ‘L Non-Winners for 2018-2019’, for which Red Weasel took the top spot, defeating Perfect Return and Osana in that order. Red Weasel’s cash prize of $150,000 and trophy were sponsored by Karran and Son, Hardware Dealers.

The second race on the card was for horses classified ‘H and Lower’. It was run over seven furlongs, and the mount TNT of the Nand Persaud Racing Stables finished comfortably ahead of respective second and third-placed horses Good Will Boy and Not This Time. In the process, TNT copped the Torginol Trophy and cash prize of $250,000.
In the third event of the day, a record number of 13 horses contested the six-furlong race for two-year-old, Guyana-bred maiden horses; but with the racing gates being able to accommodate only 12 horses, some controversy ensued before the winner was eventually declared.
Initially, Flash De Cash was declared winner, but Awesome Bandit was later adjudged to have emerged from a tight finish to claim the KSM Trophy and the $200,000 cash prize.
Perfect Pleasure rode in second, and pacesetter of the race, She’s a Maneater, came in third. Flash De Cash, the horse that had started the race outside the gate, was eventually disqualified because it was adjudged to have benefited from a five-length start.
Jockey Ramnauth, who piloted that horse, was initially banned from riding for the rest of the day, but after he apologized for what had transpired, the ban was withdrawn and he was allowing to participate in the rest of the day’s activities.
Race four, the L-Open class race, saw Secret Flyer taking the top spot and bagging the Ivanoff Trophy and $170,000 winner’s purse, which were sponsored by Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL).
Awesome Banner, Plane Land and Irish Boy were the other top finishers in that order.
In one of the closest races of the day — race five, for horses classified L-Non-Earners — Magaline prevailed to earn the winner’s purse of $130,000 and a trophy donated by Rohan Auto Sales of Good Hope, Mahaica, ECD. De Wicked Cat rode in second position, while Osana came in third.
The Kennard Memorial Turf Club Boxing Day Meet, one of the most exciting horse meets of recent, was blessed with two days of glorious sunshine prior to Boxing Day. It officially closed the horse-racing season for the calendar year 2019.
Guyanese jockey Colin Ross was declared Champion Jockey for the fifth time in six years; while the race horse Lucky Star, which won the Guyana Cup event in August 2019 and the Port Mourant Turf Club/MMP Foundation feature event only a few days ago in December 2019, was declared “top horse for the year”.
The mount Valentina was declared “the best three-year-old horse”, having copped the most wins in that category in 2019.
The next horse-racing event — the highly anticipated President’s Cup Meet, which is scheduled for the Rising Sun Turf Club, West Coast Berbice — will take place on New Year’s Day, January 1, 2020.