Monday, September 9, 2024

20 THE STAR SPORTS • Monday, September 9, 2024 @JamaicaStar www.facebook.com/JamaicaStar • www.jamaica-star.com BY JIMMIE STAR Racing Writer J OURNEYMAN jockey Paul Francis continues to be a thorn in Reggae 6 players’ sides, landing the fourth and fifth events aboard 5-2 chances – including a victory in the stewards’ room - resulting in winning tickets each picking up $568,766 from the $20 million jackpot on yesterday’s mandatory-payout day. Francis, who had 10-1 and 8-1 winners in the August 24 Reggae 6, returned to close a three-timer with STORM in the seventh event at odds of 9-5. However, it was his Reggae 6 wins, starting with AAVA JAELYN, that left bettors stumped. AAVA JAELYN defied the track bias from post-position two to cut down speedy ADENOSINE stealing home at five furlongs straight. Astride PRINCESS IFIYAH in the fifth at five and a half furlongs, Francis lost the stretch battle to MISS LYNTON with leading rider Tevin Foster. However, fortune smiled on Francis after Robert Halledeen, rider of third past the post BAD INVESTMENT, lodged a jockeys’ objection against MISS LYNTON, complaining that the winner had hindered his mount. The stewards upheld Halledeen’s objection by taking down MISS LYNTON’s number, placing her third behind 10-1 outsider BAD INVESTMENT, handing Francis and PRINCESS IFIYAH the event. The Reggae 6 had opened with punters holding their collective breaths, urging 1-2 favourite NINA DORADA across the line to record the narrowest of victories, a nose, ahead of late-charging HEEZALION at odds of 5-2. TUTS, a must-carry in the second event, made all with Charles Town’s visiting rider, Arnaldo Bocachica, handing trainer Adin Williams his 100th career win at Caymanas Park. However, title-chasing Raddesh Roman upended hundreds of Reggae 6 bets in the third out the five-straight chute astride 9-1 outsider, DESIGN DIVA, beating even-money favourite CHERRY BLOSSOM with Foster by a nose. With few tickets surviving the onslaught, Anthony Nunes’ QUEEN OF SOUL reproduced her exercise form to fight off stablemate IMMEASURABLE JOY and ADIRA, quickening away inside the last furlong with Oneil Mullings at odds of 5-1 for a strong victory in the fillies-only event at six furlongs. The Reggae 6 starts afresh on Saturday with its minimum-guaranteed payout at $3.5 million. Francis hot on Reggae 6 mandatory-payout day NEWYORK: J annik Sinner started slowly at the US Open, dropping the first set he played after being exonerated in a doping case no one knew about until shortly before play began at Flushing Meadows. If that episode initially hung over him during the tournament, Sinner was able to put it aside while on court. Was he ever. The No. 1-ranked Sinner beat Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 with his typical relentless baseline game to win the men’s championship at the Arthur Ashe Stadium yesterday, less than three weeks after word emerged of the Italian’s two positive tests for a trace amount of an anabolic steroid. “It was, and it’s still, a little bit in my mind,” Sinner said. “It’s not that it’s gone, but when I’m on court, I try to focus (on) the game, I try to handle the situation the best possible way. ... It was not easy, that’s for sure, but ... I tried to stay focused, which I guess I’ve done a great job, mentally staying there every point I play.” This two-hour, 15-minute victory gave him a second Grand Slam trophy — the other was at the Australian Open in January — and prevented No. 12 Fritz from ending the major title drought for American men that has lasted 21 years. Andy Roddick’s triumph at Flushing Meadows in 2003 was the last Slam title for a man from the United States. The last before Fritz, a 26-year-old from California, to even contest a final at one of the four biggest tournaments in tennis also was Roddick, who lost to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009. “I know we’ve been waiting for a champion for a long time,” Fritz said. “So I’m sorry I couldn’t get it done this time.” Still, this tournament was a success in many ways for US tennis, with two women and two men from the country all in the semifinals for the first time at a major since the 2003 US Open. Jessica Pegula reached the women’s final before losing to Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus. This was the first year since 2002 in which no member of the Big Three — Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal or the retired Federer — won at least one major. Instead, Sinner, who is 23, and Carlos Alcaraz, 21, split the four Slam titles. “Nice to see new champions,” Sinner said. “Nice to see new rivalries.” The world found out on August. 20 that he tested positive twice in an eight-day span during March for a substance sold in an over-the- counter product in Italy, but he was cleared because his use was ruled unintentional — his defence was that the steroid entered his system via a massage from a team member he later fired. While some players wondered whether Sinner was accorded special treatment, most believed he wasn’t trying to dope. And the US Open’s fans never gave him a hard time. “You can understand why people are upset about it. In anti-doping, it sounds so ridiculous,” said Travis Tygart, CEO of the US Anti-Doping Agency, which wasn’t involved in the case. “But the science is such that, if the facts are actually proven out, it is actually plausible.” Sinner wins US Open weeks after doping exoneration D’ HEAD CORNER STONE, with Arnaldo Bocachica aboard, in full flight on the way to winning the Kenneth Mattis, OD, Memorial Trophy over 9 furlongs and 25 yards at Caymanas Park on Sunday. A nthony M inott Jannik Sinner of Italy kisses the championship trophy after defeating Taylor Fritz of the United States in the men’s singles final of the US Open tennis championships yesterday in New York. AP