Barbados Gold Cup goes to Zoom on disqualification

Zoom, a locally based 6-year-old gelding, was elevated to first in Saturday's Sandy Lane Barbados Gold Cup in Bridgetown, Barbados, after fellow local Show Me the Money was disqualified.

In a rarity for the 30-year-old event, the biggest race in the Caribbean, the Barbados-based Show Me the Money, who crossed the wire first at 10-1 odds, was ruled guilty of inteferring with another local, 7-2 third choice Apostle, in the early stretch of the race and was demoted to 11th place.

A pair of extreme longshot Barbados runners Bird Watch (50-1) and Charge It (45-1) filled in the second and third spots in the Garrison Savannah's premier race.

The victory by Zoom, a 12-1 shot trained by Eddie Walcott Jr., re-claimed possession of the Gold Cup by a Barbados-based horse, one year after Eugene Melnyk's Canadian-bred Sterwins won the race over American runner Bribon.

Melnyk had an entrant in this year's Gold Cup in Safety Zone, who won the Labeeb Stakes last year at Woodbine, one race after being claimed by Melnyk and trainer Mark Casse for $40,000.

The 7-year-old Safety Zone, making his third start of 2011, raced evenly to finish fifth as the 8-5 favorite under jockey Patrick Husbands.

American invader Grand Cash, trained by Wesley Ward, was sixth at 3-1..

The Gold Cup, at about 1 1/8 miles on the good-to-firm turf, was run under blazing sunny skies, with light winds and in front of a raucous crowd of locals and thousands of vacationers that included a 150-strong contingent that were guests of Melnyk. The winning time was 1:49.80.

The day belonged to Barbados-based horses, however, and Zoom, a son of Super Jeblar was making his 30th start for owner Gay Smith, already a two-time Gold Cup winner. Zoom is now a six-time winner of more than $210,000.

It was a good day for the Barbadian horses as Bipin, an American-bred son of Max's Pal, won the Sandy Lane Spa Sprint over Grand Times, trained by Ward.