The Oakridge Farms’ unbeaten chestnut filly Atomica delivered one of the most smashing performances ever in Caymanas Park Classic racing history with a 20-length victory in Saturday’s Jamaica 1000 Guineas.
Ridden by Dane Dawkins for trainer Gary Subratie, Atomica crippled the eight-horse field with an acceleration in the final furlong that landed her a stakes record one minute 37.00 for the one-mile trip, erasing a 38-year-old mark by the brilliant 1984 horse of the year Thornbird.
“She got a really easy race today and she still broke the stakes record,” a completely satisfied Subratie said post-race.
The 30-1 outsider Our Angel was second and Silent Mission (14-1) third in the JA$3.75 million (US$24,500) event that opened Jamaica’s Triple Crown Series.
Dawkins, aboard his first ever Classic winner, cruised to the front aboard the big 1-9 favourite shortly after the start, with 8-1 second favourite Golden Whattle, last year’s champion two-year-old, in pursuit.
Heading down the backstretch to the far turn, Atomica was coasting on a two-length lead with Silent Mission, Golden Whattle and 30-1 bet Our Angel stalking the pace.
Atomica, who had won the Guineas “prep” races – the Thornbird Stakes and Portmore – in April and May, respectively, by a combined total of almost 20 lengths, quickened effortlessly into a three-length lead leaving the half-mile.
She was five lengths clear coming off the final bend and it was approaching the final furlong that Dawkins roused her for the first time in the race. He never used the whip once and hinted in the winners’ enclosure that we have not yet seen the best of the filly.
“From I left the starting gate I was very comfortable. She has a lot more (in the tank),” said the 28-year-old Dawkins, whose previous best finish in a Classic was second in the 2000 Guineas two years ago aboard Mahogany.
Atomica’s eight-furlong clocking shaved 2/5ths of a second off Thornbird’s 1984 mark of 1:37 and 2/5ths.
The win was Subratie’s third in the 1000 Guineas after Niphal in 2011 and Nuclear Affair in 2016 and he appeared to embrace the Triple Crown bid with the longer St Leger (10 furlongs) and Derby (12 furlongs) to come. “Every distance she goes she wins further away, so it is showing she will go the distance,” Subratie said, supported by owner Don Wehby.
“Based on what I saw today, I would love to go in the Derby,” Wehby said.
By Nuclear Wayne out of the Reparations mare Honkeytonkville, Atomica was winning her fifth race in a row and the champion filly’s breeder Karl Samuda, a current Government minister, believes they have hit the jackpot with her breeding.
“Her mother, the dam line is both speed and journey. Now we combine that with Nuclear Wayne, who also has speed and distance so it’s two great factors that collide in one animal and that’s why she is so great,” said Samuda, Jamaica’s Minister of Labour and Social Security.