ETOBICOKE, Canada – Jono Jones needed a little help from compatriot Ralph “Bruggadung” Johnson to secure his nine stakes victory for the year in North America on Wednesday’s eight-race, midweek card at Woodbine.
The Barbadian jockey steered the 3-1 favourite Sand Cove, owned by Johnson, a Barbadian business executive, to a 2½-length victory in the CAN $125 000 feature Overskate Stakes.
Jones broke the five-year-old, grey horse from the outside stall in the 11-horse field, and they stalked the pace.
He then chased the front-runners from a five-wide position late on the turn, and hit the front on Sand Cove near the sixteenth pole before setting the animal down for a hand ride to finish in a time of one minute, 22.33 seconds for 1,400 metres.
The Overskate was the third stakes victory of the year for Sand Cove. He took the Steady Growth Stakes on June 12, and the Grade 3 Seagram Cup on August 7 – both under Trinidad & Tobago-born jockey Richard Dos Ramos.
Sand Cove now has three wins and two thirds from seven starts in 2010. He collected CAN $75,000 for Johnson, which boosted his bankroll to CAN $863,482. (CMC)
