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Published: Monday | June 8, 2009
Mragh
ELMONT, New York (CMC):
Jamaican jockey Rajiv Maragh had to settle for seventh place in Saturday's prestigious Belmont Stakes, but scored a victory in the Just a Game Stakes, one of the support features on Belmont Park's biggest race meet of the year. The 11-1 bet Summer Bird, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, won the US$1 million Belmont Stakes over a mile and a half as jockey Calvin Borel failed to achieve [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Triple [COLOR=orange! important]Crown[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]
history with the favourite Mine That Bird. Summer Bird covered the marathon
trip in two minutes 27.54 seconds and won ahead of the front-running Dunkirk, with Mine That Bird third.
Earlier on the card, the 23-year-old Maragh registered an upset win in the US$400,000 Just a Game Stakes with the Britain-bred five-year-old mare Diamondrella.
On his first-ever Belmont Stakes riding assignment, Maragh held the 27-1 outsider Brave Victory in mid-pack for the first half of the race. Maragh moved Brave Victory forward leaving the far turn, but the effort fizzled at the top of the homestretch.
Desormeaux's well- measured ride aboard Summer Bird took the colt past Mine That Bird and Dunkirk in the closing stages and won by 2-3/4 lengths, sinking Borel's bid for glory.
"I made the lead at the 16th pole and I thought I was home free," Borel said after the race.
Just over two hours earlier, Maragh had used a ride similar to Desormeaux's Belmont effort to score with Diamondrella in the Just a Game Stakes. An unfancied 10-1 bet in the one-mile event on turf, Diamondrella closed fast to win by 1-3/4 lengths in one minute 36.49 seconds at an attractive winning price of US$21.20.