Jones wins stakes event

TORONTO – Jono Jones warmed up for next weekend’s Trinidad & Tobago Guineas with an impressive victory in the CAN$126 200 (BDS$253 125) Ballade Stakes at the Woodbine race track on Saturday.The Barbadian jockey gave further evidence that he is one of the best feature race jockeys, when he drove Impossible Time to her second victory of the year.Impossible Time, a five-year-old bay daughter of Not Impossible, netted her second straight win and first added-money victory, by 2-1/2 lengths.She covered the 1 200 metres on the Polytrack in a speedy 1 minute, 08.79 seconds – only 48 hundredths-of-a-second outside of the track record. Jones is expected to fly to Port-of-Spain to ride the Jamaican-bred, three-year-old colt Gold Bead in the May 31 Guineas, at Santa Rosa Park. Jones’ victory was one of three for Barbadian jockeys, following earlier wins for ace reinsman Patrick Husbands, the reigning Woodbine champion, and the under-rated Slade Callaghan.Callaghan steered 25-1 long-shot R Shining Hope to victory by a nose in the CAN $69 111 (BDS$138 839) fourth race over 1 200 metres on the turf.Husbands prevailed over Jones in Race 5 –a CAN $34 460 (BDS$69 226) event over1 400m on the Polytrack – when he guided the 7-5 favourite Between Raindrops to victory by a neck. (CMC)