Legacy Isle for Mouttet Mile

LEGACY ISLE's July 20 victory at Gulfstream Park, a US$75,000 handicap event in which he sat just off the pace, suggests the American invader should hand Rohan Crichton a second successive Mouttet Mile victory on Saturday.

The American invitee's intimidating workout last Sunday afternoon, LEGACY ISLE's first speed gallop after clearing quarantine days earlier, franked his victory at Gulfstream Park, a mile in 1:37.1 with Jamaican Anthony Thomas.

Punters turned out in droves to watch LEGACY ISLE, one of six American invitees for the US$250,000 Mouttet Mile. They were not disappointed as LEGACY ISLE had a drone struggling to keep pace overhead.

A bit sluggish at the off, 25.0 for the first quarter, 11.4 for the third furlong, signaled the start of a spectacular workout as LEGACY ISLE breezed 48.1, 1:00.2, 1:13.2, 1:27.0 for seven furlongs, a mile in 1:42.3, covering nine furlongs in 1:58.3, never off the bridle.

ATOMICA, recent Jamaica Cup winner, now a five-year-old mare, soon to be six, carries the local flag, hoping for her best Mouttet Mile showing after two previous flops when at her best as a juicy three-year-old and at four when she should have matured.

Dane Dawkins is aboard ATOMICA, hoping to catch the field flat-footed with the mare's pace.

However, she has a tendency to be rank whenever facing matching speed, decking Dawkins leaving the three-furlong pole last year.

ATOMICA's stablemate, DESERT OF MALIBU, one of five American hopefuls domiciled in Jamaica, could be the fly in LEGACY ISLE's ointment. DESERT OF MALIBU clocked a sizzling 1:12.3 for six furlongs in the November 9 Port Royal Sprint, dismissing WALL STREET TRADER and IS THAT A FACT.

PACK PLAYS, one of the overseas invitees for the Mouttet Mile, was an unfortunate victim of DESERT OF MALIBU's Port Royal Sprint savagery. After the three-year-old colt's stunning local-debut victory at six and a half furlongs on September 21, clocking 1:17.3, PACK PLAYS ran afoul of Lady Luck in the Port Royal Sprint, Dick Cardenas losing his right stirrup shortly after the start.

Replacing Cardenas, PACK PLAYS' owner, Vincent Atkinson, has flown in Kevin Krigger, a native of St Croix, US Virgin Islands. Krigger started his American career at Golden Gate Fields and Emerald Downs.

Following the blueprint of his victory last year with ROUGH ENTRY, flying in Frenchman Julien Leparoux, Crichton, part-owner of LEGACY ISLE - along with Daniel Walters and Dennis Smith - has summoned Florida-based Emisael Jaramillo to defend his Mouttet Mile title.

Americasbestracing.net describes Jaramillo, a native of Venezuela, as being "among the top jockeys at Gulfstream Park and Gulfstream Park West since his arrival in South Florida".

In 2015 and 2016, Jaramillo won graded stakes with X Y Jet, Grand Tito, and Delta Bluesman. He also won the $2.5 million Dubai Golden Shaheen in 2019 on X Y Jet, and later that year took the Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga aboard speedy three-year-old, Shancelot.

sports@gleanerjm.com