Public Sector ridden by Jalon Samuel has won the 43rd edition of the Sandy Lane Barbados Gold Cup.
A brilliant homestretch run, wide down the outside saw him pip a number of horses on the line, to hand Samuel a record seventh Gold Cup win, while grabbing a second victory for trainer Saffie Joseph Jnr.
It capped a tremendous performance for Public Sector, which was second from last with a quarter mile to go.
Second position went to Smokin’ T, while Bulldoze was third and Divin Propos fourth.
A massive crowd at the historic Garrison Savannah was on hand for Saturday’s event, which is widely recognised as the most prestigious horse race in the region.
This year’s race had a total guaranteed prize money of $316 500, with the winner receiving $173 000 for the 1800m event, which has now been sponsored by Sandy Lane for 25 years.
Earlier Rush won Race One, the Green Monkey Trophy, while in Race Two, Valiant produced a pillar-to-post performance to win the Country Club Handicap.
Another great performance came from Flying Jenny in Race Three as she won the Bajan Blue Restaurant Trophy by over 10 lengths. She is now unbeaten after three races.
Race Four, the Monkey Club Restaurant Trophy, saw Luscious win a home stretch dual with Manderin Oriental.
Next up was Race 5, the Old Nine Trophy, where Espresso blew past the field in the final furlong to give jockey Rasheed Hughes his third victory of the day.
Charisma won the Sandy Lane Suite Trophy by four lengths, before attention then switched to the Gold Cup parade, which featured some of the best of Barbadian talent and featured the Sandy Lane Dancers. (KH)
