We Jammin lands Jamaica St Leger With Reggae 6 wins, Freemantle saddles rare double

BACK-TO-BACK winners, PASSWORD and LIFE IS LIFE, handed Lawrence Freemantle a rare two-timer midway yesterday’s Reggae 6, which returned $12,513, sending a $3.5 million single-winner bonus to Saturday’s meet.

Reggae 6 bettors were rocked at the start by 6-1 chance JUVENTUS ONE, who knifed through 3-5 favourite GOLDEN AMBASSADOR five furlongs out to win the opener at seven furlongs with Omar Walker riding for Anthony Nunes.

GOODBYE FIREFLY, one of two United States-bred winners for Spencer Chung on the 10-race St Leger card, landed the second with in-form claiming rider Tajay Suckoo.

Freemantle accounted for the next two races, 2-5 favourite PASSWORD cruising past DIAMOND ROCK at a mile; before LIFE IS LIFE, a 2-1 chance, outpaced 2-5 favourite MIDNIGHT GALAXY on the lead at seven and a half furlongs.

BANGARANG tracked across from post-position one to the stands’ side, landing the fifth at odds of 2-1 with Raddesh Roman, Nunes’ second winner of the afternoon.

MODERN MONARCH closed the Reggae 6 as an 8-5 favourite, a second winner for Tevin Foster, who had guided home Freemantle’s PASSWORD in the third.

Prince Consort Stakes-winner WE JAMMIN returned with vengeance in the Jamaica St Leger, a gladiator-style battle with 2000 Guineas winner, SALUTE THE DON, who cried ‘no mas’ a furlong and a half out after a duel from the start of the 10-furlong classic.

Reporting with a halo of doubt over his head after an astounding sixth-place finish in May’s Kingston at seven and a half furlongs, struggling with leg problems that forced him out of last month’s 2000 Guineas, Peter-John Parsard’s WE JAMMIN reminded SALUTE THE DON he was still top honcho heading into next month’s Jamaica Derby.

WE JAMMIN, partnered for the first time by Reyan Lewis, stuck to SALUTE THE DON from the off, the game plan his previous rider, Omar Walker, had used to crack Gary Subratie’s runner in last year’s Jamaica Two-Year-Old Stakes and April’s Prince Consort Stakes when they first met as three-year-olds.

As if riding on cue from his cousin Walker, Lewis kept WE JAMMIN positioned outside SALUTE THE DON before edging ahead two and a half furlongs out. Coming off the home turn a half-length clear, WE JAMMIN responded favourably to Lewis changing his lead, kicking away from SALUTE THE DON, promoting track announcer Brian Rickman’s colourful “SALUTE THE DON, the check engine light has come on” call, signalling the race was over.

WE JAMMIN sprinted five and a quarter lengths clear at the end, winning in 2:08.4. SALUTE THE DON stayed on for second by a head in front of LONDON SPIRIT and SENOR BISCOTTI closing for fourth ahead of DREAM CATCHER, the 1000 Guineas winner, who ran fair enough for a fifth-place finish among colts and geldings.

STARDOM, who won the Kingston for Subratie and finished a close second to stablemate SALUTE THE DON in the 2000 Guineas, stumbed at the start and was side-swiped by I LOVE BIRDIE at the clubhouse turn, effectively ending his chances.