Pack Plays faces weighty challenge

HAVING USED blinding speed to take apart rivals in the Eileen Cliggott Memorial at six and a half furlongs four weeks ago, lightning-fast American PACK PLAYS returns with the deck stacked against him for Saturday’s Chairman’s Trophy.

The additional furlong aside, the weight allotment for the grade-one event has bumped PACK PLAYS up to 123lb, eight higher than the 115lb he carried when running topweight ATOMICA off her legs down the backstretch in the Eileen Cliggott.

Though ATOMICA still has topweight 126lb, she enjoys a 14lb weight swing on PACK PLAYS, who has 123lb, allowing tons to dangerous speedsters such as CALIFORNIA CROWN and MAMMA MIA, classic winners of their respective seasons.

With PACK PLAYS game being, ‘run ‘em ragged ’til they drop’ - which almost befell ATOMICA when she swerved under pressure a furlong and a half out, chasing 34.4, 46.4 and 59.1 with 126lb in the Eileen Cliggott - CALIFORNIA CROWN and MAMMA MIA, at 105lb and 109lb respectively, will be tag-teaming the American speed demon from the word go.

However, whether the local-breds are capable of taking PACK PLAYS off the lead is another matter. On his debut last September, PACK PLAYS clocked 1:17.3 for six and a half furlongs with 126lb. Returning for November’s Port Royal Sprint at six furlongs, Dick Cardenas lost a stirrup at the start, effectively making his fourth-place finish behind DESERT OF MALIBU an exercise gallop.

The marker race to determine whether PACK PLAYS can see off the local posse and fellow American BARNABY must be the Mouttet Mile, his third start on local soil, carrying 128lb with Kevin Krigger.

Deciding to summon St Croix native, Krigger, the first jockey from the United States Virgin Islands to ride in the Kentucky Derby, PACK PLAYS’ connections probably felt novel, disregarding the weight he would have allowed the entire field, which included crack local-based FUNCAANDUN and Florida-invader LEGACY ISLE, who was first to pounce on him, taking over three furlongs out.

FUNCAANDUN went second, coming off the turn, in chase of LEGACY ISLE. PACK PLAYS was soon relegated to fourth by a second Florida invader, COMMANDANT, a furlong and a half out, a position he held to the furlong pole with the big weight.

PACK PLAYS’ next run, losing to lightweight BOOTYLICIOUS in the Chris Armond Memorial Sprint at five and a half furlongs, made him appear to have a glass chin. However, what’s important to note is that PACK PLAYS carried 128lb in the Mouttet Mile, five pounds more than he will lug in the Chairman’s Trophy, yet was still savage enough to fan BANADURA and DESERT OF MALIBU off the lead with ATOMICA six lengths behind the pace with 116lb.

No wonder PACK PLAYS struggled when ambushed by BOOTYLICIOUS, a loss he avenged with aplomb in the Eileen Cliggott, returning 17 days later to prove that the Krigger experiment was another terrible decision.