ETOBICOKE, Ontario, CMC – Master Barbadian reinsman Patrick Husbands put his name on top of the money list, if not the jockeys’ championship table, with his fourth stakes win for the season on Saturday at the Woodbine racetrack in Canada.
The 50-year-old, soon-to-be Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee cruised to an easy win aboard 6-5 favorite Witwatersrand in the CAN $100,000 Ruling Angel Stakes on the same day that racing officials decided to celebrate his three decades of riding at the main racing facility in the country.
“Coming to this racetrack, you come here with your goals,” he said. “To achieve them is unbelievable. I feel so happy to be here at Woodbine, to make a name for myself, and to make my country proud.
“Every time I put the colors on, I know Barbados is on my shoulders. And I like to win – that’s my passion.”
Witwatersrand – trained by Mark Casse, with whom Husbands has enjoyed a productive relationship in the big-money races in Canada – was making her third start of the year in the seven-furlong race that attracted four other three-year-old fillies.
She was full of run around the turn for home on the all-weather track and finished a decisive four lengths ahead of her nearest challenger to clock a nifty one minute, 21.99 seconds, finishing a mere 1.92 secs off the track record.
“I had the best horse in the race,” Husbands said of his mount, who took last year’s Grade 3 Mazarine Stakes and clinched a Sovereign Award as Canada’s champion two-year-old female. “I didn’t have to worry about how fast I’m going down the back – it was set up for me.”
Husbands leads the purse earnings list with CAN $479 219. Still, he is now one of three jockeys with ten wins for the season – Rafael Manuel Hernandez and Sahin Civaci are the other two – after securing a milestone win earlier on the card – and the trio is two behind championship-leading female jockey Sofia Vives.
C C Royal, another Casse trainee ridden by Civaci, secured the early lead and was shadowed to the outside by 2-1 second choice Sabatini, under Vives.
C C Royal and Sabatini, who were fresh off an impressive victory on April 27 in the Star Shoot Stakes – the only failure for Husbands in big-money races he entered this term – led the way through an opening panel of 0:23.25 and continued their upfront tussle after a half reached in 0:46.57.
Husbands were last when the field made its way into the final turn, but Witwatersrand was rapidly gaining ground on the front-runners and split foes before setting sights on Sabatini, who had taken the lead away from C C Royal.
From there, it was all Witwatersrand, as the daughter of Connect out of Carta de Oro by Medaglia d’Oro, dashed away with ease for the second stakes win of her career.
Earlier, Husbands was in the saddle when 11-1 outsider Lantana Lady won by 1-3/4 lengths in the CAN $113 700 allowance, claiming an optional seventh race over five furlongs on the inner turf course to give trainer Steve Attard his 500th career win.
Lantana Lady broke just a step slowly, and her Husband settled her at the rear of the 10-horse field before he put his mount on to make a rapid inside advance on the turn.
The four-year-old bay filly was angled out at the top of the homestretch four deep and aimed the front-runner American Starlet, under Justin Stein, before Husbands edged her past in the final 100 meters to finish in 57.25 secs – 1.85 off the track record.
and then 