To have any chance of stopping Jason DaCosta from winning a fifth consecutive trainers’ title, Anthony Nunes must have a strong Mouttet Mile contender before December comes around, especially after his rival’s 2024 winner, FUNCAANDUN, showed he still had spunk, beating BARNABY out of sight in the May 16 Seeking My Dream Trophy.

Nunes, yet to make a mark in four Mouttet Mile events, sends out six-year-old NAUTICAL STAR in Monday’s Labour Day Trophy, hoping the American, who was touted as the horse to bring him glory last year, will this season fulfill the fanfare with which he had debuted locally but finished ninth in the US$300,000 event.

Way down the totem pole of local-based runners competing for 10 gates in this year’s Mouttet Mile should foreigners ship in to fill six allotted spots, NAUTICAL STAR’s facile overnight-allowance win in January's six-furlong St Catherine Cup earned the American a measly 10 points, nowhere close to his compatriots occupying the top seven positions.