Scrumpum rules the garden; First Lady flatters to deceive

Running out of the God’s Grace Stables, thoroughbred Scrumpum broke its previous record of 1:05 (one minute and five seconds), clocking 1:04 (one minute and four seconds) to capture Sunday’s feature showing in the Pre-Labour Day Race Meet held at the Cassada Gardens Race Track.
The race was over 5.5 furlongs and the thoroughbred, owned by Dr. Dwayne “Baba” Thwaites, totally dominated the contest, finishing way ahead of Advance Credit and Massacre in race number six. The First Lady, which many thought would have given Scrumpum a run for its money, finished a disappointing fourth.
Thwaites said that undoubtedly, his horse is number one in the country and will be a force to be reckoned with for a very long time.
“I don’t see any horses there to beat us but anything goes on race day because this is like cricket, you never know what is going to happen and so for this, we are just going to be prepared under all the pressure everybody has been giving us. It’s a great horse, we want to make sure he secures the Triple Crown,” he said. 
Scrumpum has now won four straight races and six from a total of seven at the gardens. 
Thwaites said that despite all of the hype by trainer of First Lady and President of the Antigua Turf Club (ATC), Neil Cochrane, prior to the meet, he never lost confidence in his animal’s ability.
“First Lady has been here for so long and hasn’t done anything and hasn’t even touched that record, so I was very comfortable and confident we could take that race regardless of what Neil had to say or what anybody has to say and just looking at the data itself, you know that Scrumpum was going to take this race and all you were hoping for is just a good run and a good rider,” the owner said. 
Newly-elected Vice President of the ATC, Jerome “Jerry” Roberts, labelled the event a success, thanking those who contributed.
“It started very much on time and went smoothly thereafter and yes, we ran one less race. We would have had time for another race because it was still daylight when we finished. I must thank all the members of the executive because Neil Cochrane [president of the Antigua Turf Club] wasn’t here on the day and everybody played the part they were supposed to play and I also have to take the time to thank Cool & Smooth for allowing us the use of those two off-road vehicles because it helped to speed up the process,” he said. 
In other results on Sunday, Silent Action outpaced Serpent and Lil Miss Perfect to capture race number five while He’s Sensational won race number four and The Dan took race number three.
Race number two was claimed by Ital while Pepper Step dominated the day’s opening contest.