By Kent Layne
For the first time in history, Barbados has seen back-to-back years of Triple Crown winners following People’s Champ’s success last year. Three-year-old colt Hurricane caused lots of damage at the Garrison Savannah on Saturday night by blowing away the field in the Barbados Derby in convincing fashion. To complete the Triple Crown, Hurricane had earlier won The Guineas in May and the Midsummer Classic in August.
Hurricane who is a descendant of 1973 USA triple crown winner Secretariat in his fifth generation on his sire Storm Arrow’s pedigree, was in third place on the early pace of his jockey Antonio Bishop. He was behind early pacesetter Afternoon Delight and Virginia Park.
Hurricane kicked clear from the vicinity of the St Ann’s Fort building as a chilly breeze blew over the Garrison. The colt sped on to win by a comfortable two lengths from maiden Ares who ran an outstanding race and stablemate to Hurricane, Pussy Kat, who finished in third position. Mical took the fourth place.
Owner Gay Smith and trainer Edward Walcott Jr. capped their third Derby success after winning it with Knight Rider in 2013 and Butterfly in 2017. Winning jockey Antonio Bishop scored his fourth Derby success celebrating with Smith and Walcott in their previous Derby scalps and with Northern Star, owned and trained by Victor Cheeseman, back in 2016.
This year’s Derby winner who is out of the locally bred mare Angelic Peace will not receive the $100 00 allocated to the horse that has won the triple crown as owners did not pay sub fees.
The winning time was 2.11.2, payments forecast $21.85, trifecta $119.05 and superfecta $435.
Apprentice Teshawn Hazlewood won four races on the day to lead all riders while trainers Robert Peirce and Andrew Nunes won two on the card to lead all trainers.
