Royal St Lucia Turf Club Opens on Schedule

KINGSTON, Jamaica — St Lucia placed themselves on the horse racing map when they hosted their first race meeting under the auspices of Royal St Lucia Turf Club.

The feature offering on the five-race card was the US$150,000 Pitons Cup, which was won by the American-bred Casting Crowns.

The event run over nine furlongs saw Casting Crowns, ridden by Qin Young, come from off the pace to catch Colonel’s Pride at the top of the straight to win convincingly.

Casting Crowns is trained by Deoner Visser and owned by well-known American outfit Taylor Made Farms. The winning time was 1:50.91. Second, went to Colonel’s Pride.

Run Bayou, ridden by Rasheed Hughes and trained by Jamaica’s Andrew “Busha” Nunes, was third. Busha Nunes now trains in Barbados.

Andrew’s brother and current leading trainer in Jamaica, Anthony Nunes had three runners in the Pitons Cup, one of which, Rock Creek, was ridden by Shane Ellis. Rock Creek finished sixth with Oriental Crown occupying the fifth slot.

In the other races on the five-race card, Anthony’s horses Shane Doan finished second with Nasty Critter and Queen of Pitons both earning third spots.

Earnings on all races were paid out to positions one to six.

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