WINNIPEG, Manitoba, CMC – Former Jamaica champion jockey Dane Dawkins continued his steady rise up the charts on Monday at the Assiniboia Downs racetrack in Canada – but current leader Prayven Badrie of Trinidad & Tobago and defending champion Antonio Whitehall of Barbados grabbed the headlines with wins in the two feature races.
Dawkins, the 2022 Jamaica champion jockey, logged a pair of wins on the seven-race card to carry his aggregate into double figures, on 10, for the season – which opened on May 20 and closes on September 24 – and moved him into seventh place in the jockeys’ standings.
Badrie, whose 24 wins make him the current leading jockey, won the CAN $51 000 co-feature Jack Hardy Stakes aboard Midnight Lady, and Whitehall, second in the jockeys’ table, stayed within three of him when he won the CAN $50 500 Derby Trial Stakes.
Dawkins got into the frame when he recovered remarkably and drove the 3-1 chance Dawn of the Devil to a half-length win in the CAN $20 000 maiden particular weight second race for maidens, fillies, and mares three years old and upward, running six furlongs on the dirt.
Dawn of the Devil pressed the front-runners from on the inside and tried to squeeze through on the turn, but Dawkins had to pull up the four-year-old, dark bay filly at the halfway mark, and she dropped back into fourth.
A determined Dawkins reproduced Dawn of the Devil on the outside going around the final turn, and she took over late to clock one minute, 14.90 seconds.
Dawkins did not have to wait long for his second win. He followed up when he steered 9-4 choice Frisco Kid to a 1-1/4 lengths score in the CAN $16 500 allowance optional, claiming the third race over one mile on the dirt, featuring three-year-olds and upward that have never won a race other than a maiden, claiming, starter or restricted, or never won three races.
Frisco Kid forced the pace from three wide and dueled two wide between horses into the final turn before Dawkins got the five-year-old bay gelding to shake off a rival mid-way into the final straight, open a short but clear lead, and get to the line in 1 min, 42.26 secs.
Badrie guided the 6-1 bet Midnight Lady to a half-length win in the Jack Hardy – the sixth race on the card – for three-year-old fillies over 1 500 meters.
He put Midnight Lady to stalk the front-runners from the inside and moved her to the outside late into the final turn before he rallied his mount, and she took over late to run to the finish in 1:35.26.
In the previous race, Whitehall piloted the undisputed odds-on favorite, Mr. Fillip, to a commanding six-length win in the Derby Trial for three-year-olds over one mile.
He put Mr Fillip to track the leader, Lucky Appeal – under Jamaican Arthur Budhu – from the outside, challenging for the lead going into the turn and the final straight before the three-year-old bay colt and drew off to finish in 1:40.72.
On another day when Caribbean jockeys swept all before them – Barbadian Rachaad Knights held onto fourth in the standings with his 18th win of the season on the 10-1 outsider CC’s Kitten in the CAN $10 500 claiming first race; compatriot Dario Dalrymple earned his fourth win on the 7-1 chance Load Abroad in the CAN $13 200 claiming fourth race; and Damario Bynoe, another Barbadian, stayed in third with his 20th win when he closed out the day’s program on the 9-4 favorite Drop a Caribou in the CAN $10 100 claiming final race.
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