BRIDGETOWN – Gulf­stream Park cham­pi­on train­er Saffie Joseph Jr fi­nal­ly cap­tured the elu­sive Sandy Lane Gold Cup when Har­row won the 42nd run­ning of the Caribbean’s most pres­ti­gious horse race in Bar­ba­dos at the Gar­ri­son Sa­van­nah on Sat­ur­day.

With Rasheed Hugh­es in the sad­dle, the sev­en-year-old bay geld­ing rep­re­sent­ed by Aver­ill Rac­ing and One Guyana Rac­ing and trained by Joseph, got home just ahead of favourite Smokin’ T, while Pub­lic Sec­tor – al­so trained by Joseph – was third, ahead of Jer­ry The Nip­per and de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Port­fo­lio Com­pa­ny.

Har­row crossed the fin­ish line in 1:55.3 to take home the first-place cheque of $236,000.

Hugh­es, who won his sec­ond Gold Cup ti­tle in the process, said he was re­lieved to fi­nal­ly give Joseph, who fin­ished in sec­ond place in the 2023 and 2024 Gold Cups, his first-ever ti­tle.

“It feels spe­cial. Saffie has been want­i­ng to win this race I know for a long while and I feel spe­cial to be the jock­ey that can win this for him.

“It’s al­ways spe­cial to win the Gold Cup, it’s the most pres­ti­gious race in Bar­ba­dos and I’m just feel­ing spe­cial to be in this mo­ment,” Hugh­es said fol­low­ing his vic­to­ry.

“Noth­ing will beat the first time, but I re­al­ly want­ed to win this for Saffie.”

The vet­er­an jock­ey said he drew on his ex­pe­ri­ence in the lat­ter stages of the race where he was chal­lenged by Smokin’ T.

“I think that be­cause I’ve been do­ing this for quite some time and rid­ing in this race for quite some time, I have learned to keep my com­po­sure and fo­cus on rid­ing strong to the line,” Hugh­es said.

Jer­ry The Nip­per, Pub­lic Sec­tor and Port­fo­lio Com­pa­ny made all of the run­ning in the ear­ly stages of the 1800 me­tres race, with Har­row set­tling in the mid­dle of the pack.

How­ev­er, on re­turn­ing to the start­ing point, Har­row be­gan to make his move while Jer­ry The Nip­per and Port­fo­lio Com­pa­ny start­ed to fade.

With Pub­lic Sec­tor in the lead com­ing in­to the fi­nal turn, Har­row pro­duced a strong run on the in­side of the track to pull away for the vic­to­ry from a fast fin­ish­ing Smokin’ T.

CMC