Outsiders wreak havoc

A WICKED quartet of consecutive outsiders and a market-springer, broken briefly by 4-5 favourite NAKAMURA, before 6-1 chance ABREATHOFFRESHAIR knocked the wind out of majority, left only a handful of Reggae 6 bets standing last Saturday.

Winning tickets required not only handicapping skill but racing luck to emerge unscathed with the $706,697 payout, which was well worth every dime, considering how the form book was turned on its head by four upsetters in the first six races.

Whereas the opening event for $180,000 claimers was always going to be a minefield, with 1-2 favourite BEAUTIFUL BRAN dangling as a carrot, cornering MATRIARCH at 8-1 would virtually mean opening the race to many other possibilities, considering the eight-year-old mare had been outsped by at least five of her rivals in her last four starts.

Ganging the Reggae 6 opener to corner MATRIARCH made sense. However, the only clue to 7-2 market-springer MINIDEWAK would be owner-trainer Oral Hayden's penchant to present his horses in tip-top shape.

MINIDEWAK made all in her first start for Hayden, highlighting the importance of noting not only equipment changes but also change of barns. However, handicappers need not knock themselves over the head for bypassing MINIDEWAK. It was tough imagining the five-furlong round race to be run in a pedestrian 1:04.0.

CRYPTOGIRL winning the third at 6-1, upstaging a trio of touted Americans, defied not only the odds but also her running style, coming from behind, as opposed to the three races in which she ran well, including her 15-length debut victory.

If there was ever a surprise, STORM A COME winning at 7-1 was a king's ransom to keen eyes. Punters went head over heels for his stablemate, installing LEGAL BOMB as the 3-5 favourite, ignoring that he hadn't race for almost three months whereas STORM A COME was reverting to a shorter trip with blinkers refitted.

NAKAMURA won the fifth like a 4-5 winner should but AWESOME LINE, the 6-5 favourite to close the Reggae 6, suffered a terrible interference by INDESTRUCTIBLE at the half-mile marker, leaving ABREATHOFFRESHAIR to run loose on the lead under Omar Walker.

Of course, the stewards placed INDESTRUCTIBLE behind AWESOME LINE but not even place bets benefitted as the interference left Reyan Lewis with his feet out of the stirrups and AWESOME LINE running wide.

With $10.6m in the single-winning ticket Reggae 6 bonus dangling, the three-day holiday carnival, starting with Thursday's Emancipation Day meet, should make for intense betting aimed at taking down the jackpot.