JAMAICA CUP
Caymanas Park - 19th October 2026
The $6m Jamaica Cup was the feature race on Monday’s card at Caymanas Park. We have already spoken about the winner in this blog in recent weeks, but unlike the Philip Feanny Gold Cup, this time The Prince’s Spur was able to hold on for the biggest victory of his career. The son of Cairo Prince was a multiple winner on the dirt in the US during a career with Todd Pletcher and then Philip Bauer. A winner on his first start for Rohan Crichton at Gulfstream in January, he has taken the switch to Jamaica in his stride and this was certainly a much more polished performance from the 7-year-old.
Initially sat behind the early pace under Raddesh Roman, he was moved forward halfway down the back straight and quickly mastered Mojito (7th) and Teflon Don (8th) to hit the front as he headed into the far turn. The fact that both of the other front runners finished tailed off is testament to just how dominant the winner was and as Raddesh Roman held him together around the turn, it became clear that the 7-year-old was unlikely to stop. An injection of pace around the turn got most of his rivals out of their comfort zone as he recorded race best splits between the 5th and 8th furlong points. At an average of 24.36 ft (ranked 3rd), he has a relative even stride pattern, but unlike in September, he had conserved far more energy and was able to maintain an average stride frequency figure above 2.14 per second in the home straight to hold off the late challenge from the beat favourite in 2nd (Girvano). The Prince’s Spur was a comfortable winner by the time they crossed the line, with a margin over of a second back to Girvano with Raddesh Roman even allowing himself a wave to the crowd as they crossed the line.
Roman said after the race that “I knew it would be hard to beat me today. Leaving the six furlongs I knew he would take a lot of beating because he was very relaxed and I had a lot of horse, and so when I asked him to go I knew that he would respond well”. (Source; The Jamaica Observer). It was an exceptional day for Raddesh Roman, who also rode the winner of the Super Lotto Trophy (Walk the Plank) as part of a 4-timer across the card. He rode a perfect race in the Jamaica Cup and always had his mount in the right place. Despite the fact that both the 2nd and 3rd had better late speed figures, neither could get within a second of The Prince’s Spur, who went through the line with a race leading run-out speed figure of 32.05 mph, even with his rider easing up in the final 20 yards. If he can settle in the early stages and conserve some energy in the back straight, then the Prince’s Spur should continue to be a major force in the top level races at Caymanas Park.
The global database of sectional times, stride data and performance metrics, including every race at Caymanas Park in Jamaica is available through Total Performance Data.