Triple puts Husbands level with Pinto

Reigning Fort Erie champion Christopher Husbands drew level with leader Melanie Pinto when he reeled off a triple on the eight-race card earlier this week.
Riding on Tuesday at the southern Ontario oval, the Barbadian won race three with favorite Hi Honey, race five with 9-1 choice Tizinga before also capturing race seven with 3-1 bet M C Jackhammer.

Pinto managed to stay in contention, winning race four with a 3-1 chance Awesome Miner and is locked on 12 wins with Husbands in the two-and-a-half-month-old season, which runs until October 26.
Husbands rebounded from the disappointment of finishing third aboard 4-1 bet Tiz My Right in race one to combine with three-year-old chestnut filly Hi Honey and beat the three-year-old and upward maiden fillies and mares by 5-¾ lengths.
Going 6-½ furlongs, Husbands brought Hi Honey from a stalking position in second to collar pacesetter Tangerine Twist on the turn and dominated the lane.

His second win came over a mile and sixteenth also for the three-year-old and upward maiden fillies and mares when he carried three-year-old bay filly Tizinga to a narrow score.
Ten-to-one choice Princess Lavender controlled the early fractions with 23.75 seconds for the quarter and 48.11 for the half before Husbands produced a sterling stretch run with Tizinga to edge the pacesetter by a head.
Husbands’ final success of the day came in a five-furlong dash when he steered three-year-old gelding M C Jackhammer to a 1-¼ length win over the three-year-old and upward maidens.
Nineteen-to-one bet Wonnefrac was sent to the front early, but Husbands got by on the turn and kept M C Jackhammer focussed in the stretch.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Slade Jones landed success in his first ever ride at Fort Erie when he piloted favorite Gizmo’s Princess to victory in a race one over a mile and 70 yards.
Jones, the son of outstanding former Woodbine jockey Barbadian Jono Jones, launched his Canada riding career earlier this year but has ridden exclusively at the prestigious Toronto oval, where he has won seven times in 83 rides.