Barbadian Jockey Patrick Husbands Triumphs in Ontario Damsel Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack

Ace Barbadian jockey Patrick Husbands continued his love affair with added-money races when he rode Forever Dixie to victory in the CAN $125 000 Ontario Damsel Stakes on Sunday at the Woodbine racetrack in Canada.

It was the sixth Ontario Damsel and the 12th stakes win of the season for the 50-year-old, and the only success he had on the 11-race card that also featured the CAN $400 000 Breeders Stakes, the final jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown.

Husbands now has 45 wins overall from 220 mounts for the season, which opened on April 22, and he is sixth in the jockeys’ standings, led by Kazushi Kimura of Japan on 98.

The 14-1 long-shot, Sal’s Blue Jacket, under Kimura, set the early splits of 25.02 and 49.09 seconds in the race three-year-old fillies over 1 700 metres on the Woodbine Tapeta.

Husbands had Forever Dixie, the joint 2-1 second favourite, nestled along the rail behind the front-runner in the early going, then burst to the lead around the turn for home and was going from the field to finish 3-1/4 lengths clear in one minute, 42.96 seconds, only 2.73 off the track record.

“I was going to get her in this race early and see how good she is because I know she’s a nice filly and she showed you today that that is my filly,” Husbands said on the Woodbine website.

“This filly’s a nice filly. Ask Mark. I tell him every time I ride her, every time I breeze her, this filly’s a nice filly. We got in an argument last time I rode her. I said, ‘Boss, she should’ve beat this horse’ and he said, ‘Well, it is what it is’. But she showed she was the best filly (in this race).”

Forever Dixie, the daughter of Quality Road out of Dixie Strike, by Dixie Union, made her first three starts in the United States before arriving last fall at Woodbine, where she promptly broke her maiden.

Husbands was aboard 3-1 favourite Paramount Prince, winner of The King’s Plate, the first jewel of the Triple Crown, in August, and finished second-from-last out of the 14 runners in the featured Breeders Stakes over 2 000 metres on the E.P. Taylor Turf track.

Compatriot Keveh Nicholls rode 51-1 outsider Twowaycrossing to third, and Rocco Bowen, another established Barbadian jockey, steered 6-1 chance Kaukokaipuu, which was second in the Prince of Wales (the second jewel in the series), to seventh.

The 4-1 bet Touch’n Ride, under Kimura, wore down rival Elysian Field, under Sahin Civaci, and then survived a claim of foul to win the Breeders’ Stakes by a nose in

2 mins, 27.56 secs, only 2.42 off the track record.

(CMC)