Mrs. Gay Smith’s PORTFOLIO COMPANY (Kitten’s Joy – Iteration by Wild Again) and jockey Antonio Bishop made an early move to the lead into the stretch run of the Garrison Savannah and held on to win the 41st Sandy Lane Barbados Gold Cup (G1) on March 2 over Ken Ramsey’s Cash Equity (Fr). The five-year-old bay gelding had shipped in from Gulfstream Park where he was trained by Chad Brown. Smith had recently purchased the horse who had won four of his 15 previous races but was fifth in his lone race, Jan. 27, since last summer.
Portfolio Company was the less-fancied of the two Smith entrants in the Gold Cup as stablemate Jerry the Nipper was odds-on with Patrick Husbands riding. Trained by Todd Pletcher at Gulfstream, Jerry the Nipper had been a close third in the Fort Lauderdale Stakes (G2) and recently ninth in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf.
The Smith pair were up against two from Ken Ramsey’s stable trained by Saffie Joseph Jr.: Cash Equity (Fr) a grade 2-placed turf horse and winner Spy Novel. Ramsey, incidentally, was also the breeder of two Gold Cup starters, Portfolio Company and Pat’ssewingmachine, the Woodbine invader who won the Group 1 Coolmore Stakes in his Barbados debut.
