TORONTO – Barbadian jockey Patrick Husbands remained narrowly ahead at Woodbine, following two more wins on Friday’s nine-race card.
The 41-year-old captured race four with favourite She’s No Meeny and returned in race nine to win with 6-1 chance Clapham Heights, to move to 124 wins in the season, which ends December 7.
However, Husbands is just three wins of clear of three-time defending champion Luis Contreras, and 21 ahead of third placed Eurico Rosa da Silva, the 2010 champion.
Husbands, chasing his first riding title in five years, kicked off his success over a mile on dirt when he carried She’s No Meeny to victory by 3-3/4 lengths in a time of one minute, 36.78 seconds.
The six-time Woodbine champion raced the three-year-old bay filly off the pace set by the duelling Molinaro Diamond and Meg, before sweeping to the front in the stretch and getting to the wire under a hands ride.
In the day’s final race over seven furlongs, Husbands and Clapham Heights made virtually all the running to beat he three-year-olds and upward.
The four-year-old brown gelding battled with 29-1 longshot Capone through the opening quarter before clashing with another outsider, 41-1 bet Trini Boss ridden by Barbadian Chris Griffith.
Husbands and Clapham Heights were the best in the stretch, however, and reached the wire a length clear.
Clapham Heights, bred by Barbados-based Canadian businessman Eugene Melnyk is named after a community in the south of the island. (CMC)
