Journeyman jockey Ian Spence yesterday declared Philip Feanny’s RIDEALLDAY a United States Breeders’ Cup Classic contender after the Mouttet Mile winner obliterated fellow importee Smile ‘N’ Leave’s 19-year-old track record in the Ian Levy Cup at eight and a half furlongs.
Making his first start as a four-year-old after dismissing rivals by seven and a half lengths in December’s US$300,000 Mouttet Mile, the Vekoma-Song of Hours roan colt led on the bridle past PACK PLAYS at the top of the lane and raced clear to post 1:41.4 with 126lb, two-fifths of a second faster than Smile ‘N’ Leave’s 1:42.1, carrying 96lb in 1997.
“Right now, he’s a Breeders’ Cup contender, a Breeders’ Cup Classic contender, not just the regular Breeders Cup, the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Spence reiterated, when asked to gauge RIDEALLDAY’s ability.
The Breeders’ Cup Classic is the premier event of the annual United States Breeders’ Cup World Championships, run on dirt, late October or early November, at 10 furlongs, attracting the world’s best horses for a purse of US$7 million last year at Del Mar in California.
The last horse shipped from Jamaica to race on the North American continent was United States-bred She’s On Wheels (Tropical Fling-Bate’s Motel), who was sent to Calder in Florida by her connections, late 1994, her best placing being third in a claiming event, before being ferried back to Caymanas Park where she asserted her dominance with victories in the 1995 Chairman’s Trophy and Shell Silver Plate.
Spence, who was stood down in the Mouttet Mile, giving way to United States Hall of Fame rider Javier Castellano, is yet to lose a race aboard RIDEALLDAY, whose race record now stands at nine victories from 11 starts, the Ian Levy being his sixth win with the 61-year-old in the irons.
RIDEALLDAY had all but signalled his intentions last Monday morning, a week ahead of the Ian Levy, almost shattering the seven-furlong track record at exercise, in preparation for the event assigned a ‘win-and-you’re-in’ tag for the 2026 Mouttet Mile.
Galloping seven furlongs out the mile chute on a track made fast by rain last weekend, RIDEALLDAY posted 1:23.3, four-fifths off Eros’ 1:22.4, a record set on September 24, 1991, back in the day before the track was resurfaced and significantly upgraded.
A son of Vekoma, the 2019 Toyota Bluegrass Stakes winner at Keeneland in Kentucky, RIDEALLDAY was purchased as a two-year-old for US$25,000 by Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL) as part of its continued push to replenish the top class of horses at Caymanas Park.
A consortium of female owners, Cassiopeia Racing, including decorated Olympian Shell-Ann Fraser-Pryce, bought RIDEALLDAY from SVREL on the eve of last year’s Mouttet Mile after the colt closed rapidly to beat fellow American DESERT OF MALIBU in November’s Port Royal Sprint.
DESERT OF MALIBU was also in action yesterday, closing the 10-race card with an easy win in the Easter Sprint Cup, dismissing local-bred MIGHTY GULLY at five and a half furlongs, clocking 1:06.2 to give 2022 champion jockey Dane Dawkins his 500th career winner.
Foreigners look set to continue dominating the top classes at Caymanas Park. Another rising star cruised the seventh event, champion trainer Jason DaCosta’s IMJUSTAGIRL, never off the bridle, posting 1:11.3 at six furlongs on debut as a three-year-old.
Racing continues on Saturday.
