The Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic which was nor­mal­ly the sec­ond jew­el of lo­cal rac­ing's 'Triple Crown' was pushed back to this year be­cause of the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic. The Ari­ma Race Club (ARC) has en­sured that the race would be run off fea­tur­ing the best horse among the three-year-olds of 2021.

Own­er of Just Ex­hale who won the first leg of lo­cal rac­ing's Triple Crown is qui­et­ly con­fi­dent that his colt which is trained by Ter­rance Thomas fit the bill of the best of the Triple Crown as­pi­rants.

His horse gets an op­por­tu­ni­ty to win two of the three clas­sic events and be­come the lead­ing three-year-old of 2021.

When the John O'Brien trained Three-year-old Stroke of Luck hit the win­ning line on Day 12, at the Carib Brew­ery Trinidad Der­by un­der cham­pi­on jock­ey Bri­an Boodram­s­ing, own­er Lance Warn­er was crushed. His dream of win­ning the first two legs of lo­cal rac­ing's 'Triple crown' evap­o­rat­ed.

In­deed, Warn­er was the hap­pi­est man at San­ta Rosa Park, when he won the first leg of lo­cal rac­ing's Triple Crown the Guineas for the first time in his ca­reer, three-year-old Just Ex­hale.

How­ev­er, Der­by Day did not turn out to be a fairy­tale end­ing which was ex­pect­ed but on this oc­ca­sion, he felt the dis­ap­point­ment of not get­ting the run of the race and los­ing his chance of the Triple Crown glo­ry.

Warn­er re­called vivid­ly when the hors­es ap­proached the cor­ner the 'Green Blur' Just Ex­hale ap­peared and every­one ex­pect­ed the colt to go by Stroke of Luck but that did not ma­te­ri­alise. Now, the qui­et Warn­er who was in awe at the per­for­mance of his horse when he won the First jew­el - The Grade One - Guineas by an im­pres­sive 4 3/4 lengths from Stroke of Luck be­lieves his colt is ready to do the busi­ness.

Lance Warn­er told Guardian Me­dia Sports on Wednes­day that, "I am qui­et­ly con­fi­dent that he will run a big race and hope­ful­ly win the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic. The train­er Ter­rance Thomas has been get­ting him ready and we are all sat­is­fied. As long as he con­tin­ues train­ing and prepar­ing well he could prove dif­fi­cult to get by with a clear run. I know he loves the turf and I want the sur­face to be hard and boun­cy, He has been gal­lop­ing well on the sur­face and I am keep­ing my fin­gers crossed that all will be well."

When asked who he thinks will be his ma­jor ri­vals, Warn­er said, "I have been watch­ing my ri­vals and how they have adapt­ed to the grass track and Pat­ta Pat­ta has been go­ing ex­treme­ly well. She is the horse with the speed and must be re­spect­ed af­ter her very g good run in the Der­by and this trip is short­er. The oth­er hors­es which have shown good form on the turf are the John O'Brien trained hors­es such as Gamed Chang­er, Pas­sion­ate and to a less­er ex­tent So­ca Sym­pho­ny and the Der­by win­ner Stroke of Luck."

Warn­er is no stranger to win­ning Grad­ed races and Clas­sics, hav­ing won the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic with Just In Time in 2008. Warn­er said, "The score now be­tween the two hors­es Stroke of Luck and Just Awe­some is one all, so, there­fore, the Mid­sum­mer will de­cide which horse is the best three-year-old in train­ing. I have said to my team let us get ready for the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic. Let us go and be­gin the year 2022 on a win­ning note and that will be a 'Breathe of Fresh Air for me,' and I can just Ex­hale."