TORONTO, Canada, CMC – Barbadian jockey Patrick Husbands fashioned two contrasting rides as he snatched some of the attention on Woodbine’s ten-race card here Saturday.
The 39-year-old won the CAN$52 000 race five with Marked in Stone before returning to capture the $74 800 race seven with Cognashene.
Husbands, a six-time winner at the celebrated Toronto oval, has 35 wins for the season and is six clear of reigning champion Luis Contreras.
He kicked off his success in a 5-1/2 furlong sprint, carrying Marked in Stone to a narrow victory over the three-year-olds and upward.
Marked in Stone tracked from mid-pack in the early stages as Bestocats set a brisk pace down the backstretch.
Once in the stretch, Husbands roused the three-year-old bay gelding with a furlong to run, duelled with Jimmyisintheforest, before getting to the wire by a neck.
Husbands then produced his trademark come-from-behind ride to get the favourite Cognashene home by a nose.
He raced the five-year-old gelding at the back of the field as Good Better Best set the early fractions to lead deep into the stretch.
Husbands angled out the gelding in the upper stretch, weaved his way expertly through traffic before getting up late to snatch victory.
