Thrilling finishes in divided feature at Caymanas Park

GIRVANO and IMMEASURABLE JOY yesterday delivered what the form lines predicted, heart-stopping, come-from-behind victories in their respective divisions of the Hubert Bartley Memorial, reminiscent of the finishes the man himself would have conjured among his 751 career wins and three riders’ championships.

United States-bred GIRVANO, closing a two-timer for Jason DaCosta, gave the champion trainer a chest-thumping win against rival Anthony Nunes’ SUPREMASI, Robert Halledeen rubbing salt into the wound by showboating shades from the wire, giving leading rider Raddesh Roman a bitter dose of his own medicine.

A grinding middle-distance runner, who warmed up with a flying third-place finish at five and a half furlongs on May 24, favourite GIRVANO wore down local-bred SUPREMASI to win division one of the seven-furlong event by a head in 1:27.0, a two-horse race in the stretch run, 16 lengths ahead of third-place MR SENATOR.

Nunes, however, would get his chance, IMMEASURABLE JOY weaving past horses to nail 7-1 market-springer ANTARCTICA stealing home under Shane Richardson.

Similar to GIRVANO, who had tested the waters of overnight-allowance winners in his previous race, IMMEASURABLE JOY, an imported-in-utero American, had twice faced unrestricted overnight company after beating non-winners of four races on May 3.

Lowered among non-winners of an overnight allowance, IMMEASURABLE JOY was able to track the pace under Wesley Henry before taking aim at ANTARCTICA inside the final half-furlong, winning by three-quarter length in 1:28.3, 1.3 seconds slower than GIRVANO and SUPREMASI, exposing the class difference among horses grouped by number of races won.

The respective divisions of the supporting Errol A Subratie Memorial were won in contrasting fashion, ZULU WARRIOR spreadeagling rivals to close trainer Adrian Prince and owner O & S Races’ two-timer, having posted MIDNIGHT RUNNER to a maiden win for three-year-olds in the fifth.

Gary Subratie pulled off a coup to win division two of the race named in honour of his late father, a tag-team in which BOLD MOVE ran 4-5 favourite FIRECRACKER off her legs for 10-1 shot THE GENERAL to storm late along the rail with Phillip Parchment, sealing the $2,048 stable exacta by a short head, a second winner for Parchment, who guided home 5-1 shot DODGE THIS LINK in the fifth.

Roman took his weekend tally to seven winners after Saturday’s five-timer, booting home United States-bred MISS MARBELLA for a maiden win at five furlongs straight and started Prince’s two-timer astride MIDNIGHT RUNNER.

Moving to 61 winners, Roman remains acres clear of Shane Ellis, who crept to 29 wins with a two-timer, I AM INTERESTED and PROVIDENT, landing the second and seventh races, respectively.

July opens with back-to-back meets this weekend, featuring the 10-furlong Jamaica St Leger on Sunday in which Guineas winners, filly BURNING HEDGE and colt SENSATIONAL SOUL, will clash in a battle of the sexes in the second leg of the Triple Crown.