by EZRA STUART

CHAMPION JOCKEY for 2006 Juan Crawford has set himself a number of goals for this year's season of racing and he is confident that once he gets the right mounts, he can sweep an entire day's race card and win all the major stake races enroute to another jockey's crown.

"My main goal is to try to win every race that I am riding in. More than anything else in my riding career, I want to complete a full card of winnings and set a new level because right now Frankie Dettori has the most wins for a card and that is what I want to exceed," Crawford told MIDWEEK SPORT at the recent annual Garrison Turf Awards at Hilton Barbados.

"From the time I started riding that was my main goal, to win every major stake they present, along with a full card. Hopefully, this year, I can get these things happening to get the most wins overall," he added.

Crawford, the first-call jockey for horse owner Lord Michael Taylor's Blue Diamond Racing Stable, says he has put returning to Canada to ride on the back-burner since he wants to see his stable take the lion's share of honours during this year's Barbados Turf Club's (BTC) racing programme.

"My main goal is to really get the stable rolling, to have a champion trainer, champion owner, champion groom, champion rider all in the same year. Until that happens, I don't think I will be stepping back out any time soon," Crawford said.

"Right now, I am riding for Lord Michael Taylor and I have no complaints. Unless I have a break in between the Barbados racing season and get
the opportunity then, I will go back to Canada. I am not going to give up riding here because you know what you have but you never know what you are going to get, so that is about it going to Canada and riding," he opined.

Last year, Crawford, who had a tough tussle with Anderson Trotman for the jockey's championship, ended with 30 wins from 126 rides, a strike rate of 24 per cent and his mounts earned $527 741.

"It feels great. I rode a hard year and in the end, it was successful.

"I had to give most of the thanks to the trainer, he did a really good job; the owner for buying really good stock that I would have an opportunity to sit on good horses; to the Most High, personally for giving me the energy and strength to pursue my job and my career; and to the wife and the family. They were a backbone in my job also because it is stressful at times," he said graciously.

"The rivalry was sometimes good, sometimes a little rough but in the end, I am champion so I'm thankful and I will be continuing this year
in 2007 to try to make it an even better year than it was last year," he added.

Crawford wrote his name in the BTC's horse racing record books by winning the prestigious United Insurance Barbados Derby and completing the Triple Crown after he had started the second season in June by landing the C.O. Williams Fillies Guineas before taking the second leg of the Triple Crown in the Pinnacles Feeds Midsummer Classic on champion horse, Zouk. There were also other wins which he cherished like the Rotherley Construction Inc. Stakes in February 2006 and the Platinum Heights Trophy in the second season.

"There were several enjoyable races, but to win my first Derby and a Triple Crown all at once was a bonus. It was a happy time, but I enjoyed every win that I got and am thankful, but it was more or less the Triple Crown," Crawford said.

Crawford is expected to partner Don Anglesonny in the lucrative race which will see Barbadian horses coming up against their Trinidadian counterparts.