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Form winners ensure short-priced Reggae 6 payout
June 23, 2025
FAVOURITES dominated Saturday's nine-race card, four Reggae 6 events won by short-priced winners including money-back RIDEALLDAY in the third.
A Reggae 6 payout of $2,120 underlined the shrewdness of local punters, who were on to market-springer AMAD ALI in the opening event for $350,000 claimers, making the six-year-old a 7-5 favourite with Wesley Henry at five and a half furlongs.
JON P caused anxious moments, streaking away at long odds of 11-1, before being reeled in by fast-finishing AMAD ALI, who won going away by two lengths to the relief of his backers.
Since beating five-year-olds, non-winners of two races, last August, AMAD ALI's best effort was his next run, caught by SNEAKY JOE and GENERAL CHIEF three months later, trying to spring a coup on his first race among non-winners-of-three in November.
Eagle-eyed punters noted AMAD ALI running an even race for sixth behind PHENOMENAL ONE at four furlongs straight the previous Saturday, figuring Henry replacing claiming rider Emelio McLean was the green light to dive in.
LOCKDOWN winning the second as second-favourite to UNCLE HARRY was simply a matter of Raddesh Roman's fan club believing every mount the champion and leading rider gets is an automatic winner.
LOCKDOWN's sixth-place effort in the 2000 Guineas was light years ahead of UNCLE HARRY's down-the-track finish among non-winners of two races, 6-5 being a king's ransom for a horse that should have gone off at 1-9 with Henry.
Banking LOCKDOWN and RIDEALLDAY in the third set the stage for bets to be spread in the fourth won by 9-5 favourite, EMPEROROFTHECATS, whose recent return to form and back class were reasons enough for any sane Reggae 6 bettor to back the former classic aspirant to beat $1 million claimers after winning on a $700,00 tag last out.
UNCLE PECK, a four-year-old maiden foreigner among his local age cohort, though non-winners of two races, was always going to be a farce with the American coming in at 4-5 with Romario Spencer along for the ride.
COP CAR closed the Reggae 6 as its longest shot, 2-1, an almost automatic choice, considering he had chased home BOB THE BUILDER, who was caught at the wire by SENSATIONAL SOUL in the 2000 Guineas.
A $14.32 million bonus awaits a single-winning Reggae 6 ticket on Saturday ahead of Sunday's mandatory payout.
