NORTH RANDALL, Ohio, CMC – Jamaican jockey Robert Halledeen had one of his best days in the saddle this year at the Thistledown race track in the United States, where he logged back-to-back wins on Monday’s race card.
The 34-year-old, a five-time classic winner at Caymanas Park on home soil, now has 23 wins for the season, which opened on April 24 and is set to close on October 13, and he is 12th in the jockeys’ standings headed by Luis Rivera on 68 wins.
Barbadian jockey Rocco Bowen continued his comeback year with his 33rd win of the season on the eight-race card, and he is seventh in the standings.
Halloween, also known as “Hardball” by Jamaican race fans, notched a 1-1/4 lengths win aboard the 4-1 bet Diva Power in the U.S. $27 400 starter optional, claiming fourth race over six furlongs on the dirt track.
He got Diva Power away alertly, and the six-year-old, dark bay mare set a pressured pace two wide into the turn before shaking clear before a half and widening under right-handed urging from Halledeen in the upper stretch to clock one minute, 11.64 seconds.
Halledeen, who started riding in the United States last year, proved himself when he followed up with a tactical ride to steer 16-1 outsider Gibby My Corn to a win by a head in the U.S. $35 800 allowance fifth race over six furlongs on the dirt.
He showed no urgency for a half on Gibby My Corn, but he got the five-year-old bay gelding to close rapidly in the five paths under left-handed urging through deep in the homestretch and got up in the final strides for a time of 1 min, 13.26 secs.
In contrast, Bowen had an easy ride to win the U.S. $ 35,800 allowances seventh race over one mile on the dirt astride the raging hot favorite, Our Last Song, by 10-3/4 lengths.
Our Last Song broke in front, set all the pace, and Bowen got the four-year-old bay filly to widen through the stretch to finish in 1:42.02.
and then 