VANCOUVER, British Columbia, CMC – Trinidad & Tobago jockey Ridge Balgobin captured one of the two CAN $50 000 featured stakes races on the seven-race card on Saturday at the Hastings Racecourse in Canada.
Balgobin logged his fifth win of the season, which opened on April 30, when he drove the 3-1 choice Lucky Force to a three-quarters-of-a-length victory in the fifth race, the Ross McLeod Stakes over 1 300 meters on the dirt.
Lucky Force broke sharply and tracked the leader Rockcliffe, under former T&T champion jockey Brian Boodramsingh, into the backstretch while racing one out from the rail.
Balgobin brought Lucky Force to battle two wide from the outside of Rockcliffe entering the turn and assuming command entering the lane.
Lucky Force still had enough in the tank, and the three-year-old bay gelding held off a late charge from runner-up Legacy Square under leading jockey Amadeo Perez and finished in a time of one minute, 16.93 seconds, a mere 1.93 secs outside of the track record.
Later on the card, Kerron Khelawan, another T&T jockey, also got his fifth win of the season when he piloted the 3-1 chance Star Finality to a 1-1/4 lengths victory in the CAN $11 000 final race over 1 300 meters on the dirt.
Khelawan put Star Finality into a stalking position down the backstretch and got the three-year-old chestnut filly into contention approaching the final turn before slipping her along the rail in mid-stretch to take command and drew clear late to log a time of 1 min, 20 secs flat.
and then 