One Love reggae festival to feature Freddie McGregor and other top acts

Faith Evans – File

The famous Niagara Falls tourist spot on the Canada-United States border is bracing for the inaugural staging of the concert, One Love at the Border.

The reggae-soul-funk festival will feature a diverse mix of acts such as Freddie McGregor, Errol Dunkley, Lakeside and Con Funk Shun.

The three-day show kicks off July 4 and will be headlined by singer Faith Evans, who emerged during the neo-soul movement of the 1990s.

The show is the brainchild of Jamaican Andrew Stephens, a senior partner in the Real Music Group, promoter of One Love at the Border. The Niagara Falls attraction will be transformed into a mighty moving stream of red, green and gold, using strategically placed lights to give a decidedly Rastafarian feel to the event.

“The idea for this is to not only celebrate past and present multi-genre music legends and create a stage for uprising local artistes, but to bring everyone together from different backgrounds, cultures and communities from both sides of the border,” he said.

Stephens has promoted numerous shows in Canada and the United Kingdom through his Unison Entertainment Enterprise. Last year, he joined with Thomas Tripodi and Tony D’Ambrogio to form RMG.

One Love at the Border is the company’s first major promotion. Stephens said they have received support from the Niagara Parks service, which runs Niagara Falls, but RMG is footing most of the bill for the debut event.

Freddie McGregor – File

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One Love reggae festival to feature Freddie McGregor and other top acts

El Poderoso snatches Seek Exercise Book feature

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El Poderoso snatches Seek Exercise Book feature

Prince Theo lands "Ossie" Steele feature

Sport

HURBUN WILLIAMSSunday, August 18, 2013

On a day when most favourites failed to justify favouritism, the 5-2 chance Prince Theo defied the trend by winning the $528,000 Oswald “Ossie” Steele Memorial Cup feature by one-half-length at Caymanas Park yesterday.Well ridden by the leading rider Omar Walker for trainer Gary Subratie, Prince Theo, who after failing to go the earl pace, came charging forward after rounding the final quarter bend for his challenge. And with a determined run brushing the running rails he rallied strongly to be on level terms with the front-runners inside the final third before going on to register his second win of the season.It was a victory that was not totally unexpected by trainer Subratie. “I was fairly confident about his chances. I am usually pretty decent when it comes to preparing claiming horses and this one is quite a good horse. He ran no race on the last occasion and I could not fathom why. But I took him back to the track to work with him a bit and after that I thought that he was ready to go. As you can see, he ran a time of 1:13.1, which is the best time I think he has done in a long time.”Walker also showed confidence in his mount’s ability to get the job done. “All I needed to do is to get a clean break, which he did, and all I had to do was to sit and wait until leaving the three-furlong (600 metres) pole after which I asked him to run and he began to close really fast, so all I had to do was to keep him balanced until he hit the wire in front.”Aquamoto, a 9-2 bet ridden by Dick Cardenas, finished best of the rest after running prominently until Walker produced Prince Theo. Meru, a 3-1 chance ridden by the claiming apprentice Orlando Fosters, who also ran prominently, finished another one-half-length back. Real Vibes Machine, who was never worse than third just before setting down for the final 400 metres stretch run, completed the frame under claiming apprentice Renardo McNaughton at odds of 4-1 in the field of 11. A field of 12 was declared, but Ministerofjustice was a late scratch.Owned by True Friends, Prince Theo, a six-year-old dark bay colt by Image Maker out of Champion Melody (Pat N Jac) bred by Terence Strachan, was winning for the 10th time from 40 career starts, and earned $288,300 as the winners share.

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Prince Theo lands "Ossie" Steele feature

Commanding Chief fancied for Caymanas Park feature

THE 10th running of the Sports Journalists Of Jamaica Trophy for purse of $92,000 among $350,000 — $300,000 claimers is set to highlight the 12-race card at Caymanas Park today.

Post time for the event is set at approximately 2:15 pm with first post at 12:15 pm.Four other supporting feature races are carded, headed by the $786,5000 Tsetsi ‘Lights Out’ Davis Trophy for Open Allowance runners; the $715,000 Eddie Black Memorial Cup programme opener, a maiden special weight contest for native-bred and imported two-year-olds; the $516,000 Valbert Marlowe Memorial Cup, a Restricted Allowance III for native-bred four-year-olds upward (NW3 O/T), and the $715,000 Track Price Plus ‘Dig-Out’ Handicap, a maiden condition race for native-bred three-year-old fillies, Division II.Probably not the most competitive race on the card the Sports Journalists event has brought some useful under performers together for the 1,200 metres call for three-year-old and upward and native-bred five-year-old (NW3) that could make the event interesting. Based on current form, recent winner Jarreau, now owned and trained by Renex Burrell, must be looked at seriously as a winner. When prepared as a two and three-year-old the Dayton Flyer chestnut gelding promised much but never really materialised into something special with only a solitary win.However, after posting his second win as a $250,000 claimer on last, he looks as though he has found his class at last and even stepping up a bit in claiming scale to $350,000 should not prevent him from following up with another quick win.Jockey Richard Mitchell, who was aboard on last when winning over today’s distance, will continue in the irons. If there is any danger in the field Si Puedo, the mount of the leading jockey Omar Walker, should be it.Now six years old, Si Puedo at this level is no back number as was seen on last when running over today’s distance at the higher level.Prepared by Ryan Darby for S&G Stables, Si Puedo, despite the barrier one draw, possesses enough speed to escape being boxed in, and if allowed to chart the course, could hold on for his 10h career win.Katherinethegreat, the mount of Clive Lynch, and Serious Business with Dane Nelson up cannot be discounted.In the Tsetsi ‘Lights Out’ Davis Trophy penultimate race going 1,820 metres with a post time set at approximate 5:25 pm, a field of six will run. Still to establish himself as a genuine ‘A’ Class campaigner, Commanding Chief pits his obvious class against a good field of Open Allowance horses by heading the handicaps with 57.0kg.Prepared by Everal Francis for Doks Stables, the progressive son of War Marshall out of She Knows Beau (Beau Genius) bred Paul Chen is on the hunt for back-to-back wins and declared without the visors in his attempt to overturn his recent five-year-old debut loss to Reasonable Press.In that defeat Reasonable Press carried 57.0kg to Commanding Chief’s 56.0kg. Going longer today the weight difference favours Reasonable Press, who comes in at 52.0kg benefitting from the apprentice Orlando Foster’s 3.0kg claim, and this could be significant.Jockey Shane Ellis, who has the somewhat onerous task of getting Commanding Chief to the winning post ahead of the field, will not have only Reasonable Press to think about, but also the lightly weighted Uncle Donny to be ridden by the leading rider Omar Walker.The 2,000 Guineas winner of last season was a two-length loser to the bang in form Timeforarms going 1,600 metres. However, with the distance increased, so will be his chances of claiming victory, as he won over the two-turn sprint distance on March 30.Ones To WatchRace 1 Janiboutice (Dane Nelson)Race 2 The Professional (Paul Francis)Race 3 Sirmandi (Paul Francis)Race 4 Cruiser (Richard Lunan)Race 5 Jarreau (Richard Mitchell)Race 6 Shinning Gold (Ruja Lahoe)Race 7 Luminous Trieste (Andre Martin)Race 8 Amanda Panda (Andre Martin)Race 9 Silver Sands (Dane Nelson)Race 10 Bluemountian Man (Jevvanne Anderson)Race 11 Commanding Chief (Shane Ellis)Race 12 Reign Of Deftiny (Dane Nelson) Jockey Shane Ellis takes filly Princess Shaneil to an impressive three-year-old maiden victory going 1,600 metres at Caymanas Park on Wednesday. (PHOTO: HURBUN WILLIAMS)

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Commanding Chief fancied for Caymanas Park feature