Top rated juvenile Lucky Sam romped to victory in the 2014 edition of the Republic Cup at Borrowdale Park Race course yesterday. He shone in this strongly contested race to cap off a stellar season that has seen the three-year-old son of Imperial Stride excel when facing highly rated opposition.
By Munyaradzi Madzokere
Trained by Bridget Stidolph, the gelding produced a commanding performance to scoop the US$24 000 winners’ cheque, warding off a fast finishing Equina and deny the filly a hatrick of feature race wins.
Lucky Sam led from gun to tape and was seeking to improve on his impressive second place finish in the OK Grand Challenge but never had things his own way with Equina and Orbit War providing stiff resistance over the gruelling 1 900m distance.
Equina was hotly fancied but she could not reproduce the form that has seen her snap up back to back wins in the Castle Tankard and OK Grand Challenge and she could only manage second place on the podium.
Orbit War ran third followed up by a hard-running Madigan to complete the placings for the minor money.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony, jockey Randall Simons was ecstatic over Lucky Sam’s victory. “It’s always a good feeling to win a race, but this one was very competitive so I took it at my own pace, then picked it up and won a good race today.”
The occasion was graced by Kamal Khalfan of Oman, Ministers Emmerson Mnangagwa and Simon Khaya Moyo representing the Republic Cup Trust which administers various charities around the country.
