TORONTO – Patrick Husbands and Juan Crawford were among the winning jockeys on Wednesday’s 10-race, midweek card at Woodbine Racetrack.
?Husbands pushed his track-leading money earnings closer to the CAN$5 million (BDS$9m) mark when he steered the 4-5 favourite Bear’s Pearl to a 3 ¾-length victory in the sixth race over 1 200 metres on the Polytrack.
Husbands kept Bear’s Pearl, a four-year-old, grey filly, in range in the CAN $17 000 sprint event before producing her in the upper stretch to draw away and finish three-wide under a hand ride for a time of one minute, 09.84 seconds. It was the 78th victory of the season for the ace Barbadian reinsman, who now trails Luis Contreras by 14.
Crawford slammed an 11-strong field, when he piloted the 14-1 outsider Go Shermin Go to a 7½-length victory in the CAN$16 500 eighth race over 1 400m on the all-weather track.
A well-regarded jockey in Barbados, Crawford hustled the four-year-old dark bay gelding to an early lead and set a pressured pace on the backstretch before Go Shermin Go blew the competition away on the turn and widened when asked in the stretch to finish in a time of one minute, 23.97 seconds. This was only the ninth success for Crawford at Canada’s leading racetrack this season.
Over in the city of Winnipeg, Christopher Husbands landed a double and was the most successful jockey on Wednesday’s mid-week race card at Assiniboia Downs which also included a win for Tyrone Nelson.
Husbands, the plucky Barbadian reinsman, moved his aggregate for the season to 43, 11 behind leading jockey Paul Nolan – with Nelson tied alongside Jalon Samuels, another Barbadian, on 12 wins.
Husbands opened the day’s racing with a commanding nine-length victory aboard the 3-5 favourite Our Boy Ken in the CAN $6 700 first race, going 1 500 metres on the dirt. (CMC)
