Scrumpum’s reign continues with Triple Crown victory

Thoroughbred Scrumpum continued his winning streak at the Cassada Garden’s Race Track, carrying his tally to six straight following a dominant performance in the first leg of the Antigua Turf Club’s (ATC) Antigua Triple Crown Series on Monday.
Running in the Antigua Black Pineapple Stakes, Scrumpum, from God’s Grace Stables, clocked a time of 1:38.76 to outrun Advance Credit and He’s Sensational over a distance of eight furlongs.
One other favourite going into the anticipated showdown, The First Lady, again disappointed fans after getting a late start out of the gates to finish at the back of the pack.
Owner of Scrumpum, Dr. Dwayne “Baba” Thwaites, said that the plan was to get ahead and stay ahead.
“We wanted to stay in front because you never know what the other horses will do once they get in front of you; they could always block you. Every time they try to get ahead of us and even though you want to cool before you give it the run of its life, we planned he would keep the lead, but not too far ahead so every time they try to pass him, we just touched him a little bit and let him go,” he said.
Trainer of The First Lady and President of the turf club, Neil Cochrane, dispelled rumours that the gates may have disadvantaged his horse.
“It’s not a gate issue in terms of the gate. At the end of the day, the gate officials are trying to work with the problem because their role is to try and get all of the horses to race so ultimately, they are triggering the gate as quickly as possible when she gets into the gate and once everybody else is there, they are ready to go so once she steps in, they [open] the gates pretty quickly so that she can come out, so I don’t think there is an issue there. She is just coming out [of the gates] slowly,” he said.
Big Deal captured the day’s final race, registering a time of 1:18.50 ahead of Bobadila and Silent Action over 6.5 furlongs.
In the opening race of the day, Pepper Step sped home ahead of Ouch and Sput Nick while Ital, with a time of 1:11.42, had the better of Ama Bella and PayMeDMoney over 5.5 furlongs in race number two.
Race number three went to Corol Vontrel in a time of 1:24.31, with Booby Alley finishing second and Mind U Business claiming third.
 Clapping Hands took top honours in the day’s fourth event.
A date for the next leg of the Antigua Triple Crown Series will be announced this week.