DAVID BYNOE'S SWADE warmed up for the Sagicor Life Breeders Classic with a facile win in the Diamonds International/Audemars Piguet Deva Condition race at the Garrison last Saturday.

The Sagicor Breeder's Classic runs off at the Garrison on Saturday, and Swade is among nine locally bred horses entered for the 1 800 metres event which carries prize money totalling $53 487.

Swade won this same race in 2004, and his victory last Saturday suggests he has an outstanding chance of winning it a second time.

Confidently and capably ridden by apprentice Rico Walcott last Saturday, Swade was always in the firing line before Walcott picked up the running with the Geoffrey Bynoe-trained gelding approaching the four-furlong marker.

Swade ran on gallantly and turned back challenge after challenge before going on to a relatively easy one-and-three-quarter lengths victory. Favourite Lightning Pilot (Jamar Maughn) ran on well to finish second, just ahead of Iíma Lucky Native (Anderson Trotman) and Milliondollarnoble (Paul Leacock).

Seven-pound claiming apprentice Rocco Bowen is improving by leaps and bounds and this was further emphasised by his two brilliant, contrasting victories (albeit one was in a dead-heat) at the Garrison last Saturday.

His first win came aboard the Stephen Bynoe-trained three-year-old Dipitinhoney in the 1 800 metres Diamonds International/Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Chronograpgh event. The youngster kept Dipitinhoney just behind the early pace setter A.P. Esquire back to the four furlongs pole, at which point he told A.P. Esquire "bye bye" and quickened the pace on Dipithoney approaching the three furlongs marker. They quickly opened up a handy lead from the chasing pack and brought the field into the homestretch.

In the meantime, Rico Walcott had got Come On Taz going and the pair thundered down the homestretch behind Bowen and Dipitinhoney. Bowen tried his best to keep Dipitinhoney going, but Come On Taz was closing on her with every stride, so much so that the two horses flashed past the finish line together.

The photo-finish camera could not separate the two horses and the judges declared a dead heat.

Bowen's other win was even more enthralling and it came three races later on Sir David Seale's Favorite Player.

Laid way off the pace for the greater part of the 1 800 metres event in which the early fractions were set by creole Captain PJ, Bowen brought the roan grey gelding with a steady but strong homestretch run on the outside to pip odds-on favourite Whiskey For Me (Trotman) literally on the line.

The finish was so close opinions were divided as to which of the two, Whiskey For Me or Favorite Player, had won with some race fans calling it another dead-heat. But the camera eventually gave Sir David's animal the verdict.

Favorite Player's win meant that two of the three hottest apprentices in Barbados today, Bowen and Rico Walcott, landed four of the ten races last Saturday, The other hot apprentice, Chris Husbands, campaigned in Trinidad on the same day.