The 3-2 favourite Blue Vinyl used a devastating last-furlong acceleration to stage a massive win in Sunday’s Jamaica 2000 Guineas at Caymanas Park, giving young rider Raddesh Roman his first ever Classic success.
MNM Racing Stable’s Blue Vinyl won the JA$3.75 million (US$24,500) event by 11 lengths for trainer Patrick Lynch, clocking a fast time of one minute 37 and 4/5ths of a second for the eight-furlong trip.
The 11-1 bet Brinks finished second and Emperorofthecats (4-1) was third a further length and three-quarters away.
Out of the starting gates, the 15-1 bet Yellowstone and Brinks went for the early lead with April’s Prince Consort Stakes winner Emperorofthecats stalking. Blue Vinyl was seventh within four lengths of the lead after the first two furlongs.
Drawn in the potentially traffic-troubled one-box, the 24-year-old Roman had quickly safeguarded his inside path and further secured a clear run by rousing the Kingston Stakes winner to vie for third approaching the half-mile.
Three furlongs out, Brinks threatened briefly under jockey Reyan Lewis when he quickened away from Yellowstone while Emperorofthecats and champion trainer Anthony Nunes’s 5-1 shot Morimoto began motoring toward the lead, leaving Blue Vinyl back in fifth.
Brinks held a clear two-length lead coming off the final bend and Emperorofthecats presented an outside challenge but the race was effectively over when Roman roused Blue Vinyl to challenge between horses. After changing his hold and switching from right hand to left-hand whipping, Roman got Blue Vinyl to zoom past the duelling pair at the eighth pole.
Surging to double-digit lengths in the victory margin in the space of a single furlong spoke volumes about Blue Vinyl’s late race acceleration.
“I can tell you I had a lot of horse,” a chuckling Roman said post-race, almost in disbelief over how extraordinarily the horse quickened in the last furlong to give owner Michael Gayle his first Classic win.
“It’s a good feeling. I have been owning horses for over 15 years and this is the first time (winning a Classic), it’s an overwhelming feeling,” a smiling Gayle said in the winners’ enclosure.
Blue Vinyl’s winning time is the joint second fastest 2000 Guineas winning time in the last dozen years, only Wow Wow two years ago going faster at 1:37 and 3/5ths.
The win was trainer Lynch’s first 2000 Guineas triumph and fourth Classic success for the former jockey, who dismissed concern that there were contenders he had beaten in last month’s Kingston Stakes, returning to face him on more favourable terms at the scales.
“I didn’t have any doubts because if you look at this horse, how he is built, he is built to carry weight,” said Lynch, who had Derby wins with The Bomber (2007) and Drone Strike (2018) and a Fillies Guineas victory with Disability Charm in 2018.
Blue Vinyl’s spectacular win Sunday afternoon left fans buzzing over a likely St Leger clash on July 2 with the unbeaten filly Atomica, who won Saturday’s 1000 Guineas by 20 lengths in a stakes record 1:37.00, four-fifths of a second faster than Blue Vinyl went in his Guineas triumph.