Sir Alton to overcome high stakes

A LOT rides on the outcome of Saturday's ninth event, an open allowance/graded stakes at six furlongs, which, on paper, presents itself as an innocent rematch between GOD OF LOVE and importee SIR ALTON, both of whom were upstaged by SENTIENT at the exact distance a month ago.

However, the plot is between the lines where Wayne DaCosta, having ruled the trainers' roost for 13 consecutive years, was unseated from his throne last season by Anthony Nunes, who was runner-up for 11 of the baker's dozen.

DaCosta, having won the Jamaica Derby with KING ARTHUR, amid a purple patch, knocked down Nunes' lead to a little under $1 million as at last Saturday.

At stake for the 18-time champion trainer is approximately $1.1 million, the winners' share of Saturday's $2 million open allowance/graded stakes, a 'hybrid' group created to allow lonely grade one runners, such as TOONA CILIATA, a place to race in the face of a paucity of runners at the top level. In these events, genuine grade one horses, a la TOONA CILIATA, carry 130lb, up to six furlongs, and 126lb when venturing beyond.

A burden gleefully accepted

Topweight 130lb explains TOONA CILIATA's absence, a burden gleefully accepted by DaCosta's STRANGER DANGER, allowing stablemate SIR ALTON to carry 112lb against his main threat, GOD OF LOVE, whose connections have Dane Nelson riding 10lb over the allotted 108, giving the foreigner six pounds, after finishing a short head behind him when beaten into third by SENTIENT.

SIR ALTON now enjoys an 11lb swing on GOD OF LOVE, who he had rallied to head off behind SENTIENT, after chasing his rival's lightning-fast splits, having raced only six days earlier, winning six furlongs in a stakes record 1:10.2.

Not only was SIR ALTON racing for the second time in six days, the October 10 event was his fourth race in 31 days, 29 and a half furlongs worth of fast times, including a stakes record at five and a half, suggesting the three-year-old dark bay colt was asked to do too much too quickly. In addition, SIR ALTON has never been subjected to DaCosta's rigorous training regime, which betrays a physical fragility of the foreigner.

DaCosta has stacked the field with four runners, hoping to scrape as much of the purse as possible, leaving matters in the hands of Anthony Thomas, who, himself, is in a battle with Nelson, the 2012-14 champion, atop the jockeys' standings.

Similar to Nunes, Thomas, who won his lone title as a non-claiming apprentice in 2018, had enjoyed a significant lead over his rival but has been nibbling his nails for the last two weeks as Nelson has whittled him down to six as at last Saturday.

SIR ALTON should reinvigorate DaCosta and Thomas' respective championship bids in the 'silly season', which is already under way with both trainers lowering horses to claiming events, akin to crew members jettisoning baggage from a malfunctioning aircraft.