Fantastic Boy crosses line following his debut victory over veteran Wally

 Fantastic Boy makes victorious debut at Little A. Racetrack

BY DEAN GREENAWAY

 In front of a small crowd, a speedy horse with a fancy name had a victorious debut in the feature race at Little A. Race Track in Sea Cows Bay on Sunday.

Fantastic Boy jumped and pranced before his handlers blindfolded him to enter the gate, then charged past the veteran Wally and fellow new comer Purple Ruckass in the one mile feature race—the last of five on the card—to win in 1 minute 47 flat.

Fantastic Boy slipped past Wally with two and a half furlongs to go after moving away from Purple Ruckass earlier. Rushing Away who was entered scratched from the race.

Owner Rodney Simmonds said he was really proud of Fantastic Boy’s performance. “I’m surprised too because he didn’t’ run in two months before I bought him,” Simmonds noted adding that Fantastic Boy had gotten sick in Puerto Rico. “I only had him here for about two weeks exercising, so I didn’t really expect such a great run from him. I’m surprised, but he’s a really nice horse.”

Simmonds said the one mile distance is his stallion’s specialty and expected Purple Ruckass to jump to the lead while Wally would come off the pace. He instructed his jockey to stay in second position until Purple Ruckass slowed. “But after Wally passed him I said ‘oh my God, it’s over today,’” Simmonds recalled. “He showed me has a lot of guts and he can come back and he can run long. It turned out to be good.”

Mountain Man, competing in one of two 7 furlong races for class C horses allowed Princess of Heather and Canelo Twist to set the past for the first half of the race before making his move. Mountain Man positioned himself with two furlongs left and grabbed the lead off the final turn to win in 1:33-3/5. Carnelo Twist and Princess of Heather followed while Como Babe pulled up lame. “I advised my jockey to stay as close as he could even if he had to beat them early, because I know he got the stomach for coming back. The way I saw the race setting up, in my heart I said ‘I can pass them,’” owner Axel Ritter explained. “Once he’s 2-3 lengths (behind), I’m comfortable. It’s when he drops six and seven lengths, that’s when I get nervous but, today he was always in the race. I told them I could beat them but they didn’t believe it.”

In the other 7 furlong race, Smooth Legend gave trouble getting into the gate before settling down, while Peluzo Panzi Panzi and Fabulous Cherokee marched right in. Smooth Legend grabbed the lead out of the gate building as much as a four lengths lead. Fabulous Cherokee who stayed off the pace negotiated the second of three turns well to cut Smooth Legend’s deficit then charged past his tiring nemesis en route to a two lengths victory in 1:33.0.

The card opened with Lady Biggie sprinting away from Mail Express in a 4 furlong race for native sons who have won two races in their lifetime. Lady Biggie recorded a time of 53 seconds flat.

Arabian Dinner opened a three lengths lead on the back stretch in a 5 furlong sprint for Classes E and F horses that included Miss Rea and Quaker Rat for the victory. Arabian Dinner had a time of 1:03-3/5.