Cham­pi­on jock­ey-in-the-mak­ing for 2024, Dil­lon Khelawan, got what he want­ed in his ca­reer when he guid­ed the John O’Brien-trained fil­ly Head­lines Again to an im­pres­sive suc­cess in the NL­CB Trinidad Der­by on Re­pub­lic Day.

The fil­ly won su­perbly by four lengths and the dis­tance could have been dou­bled if the rid­er want­ed on Tues­day (Sep­tem­ber 24) in the fea­ture event over 2,000 me­tres at San­ta Rosa Park, Ari­ma.

The cham­pi­on ju­ve­nile of 2023 Head­lines Again du­ly won the most pres­ti­gious event of the Triple Crown Se­ries—the NL­CB Der­by, the biggest race for three-year-olds.

Guardian Me­dia spoke to win­ning rid­er Khelawan af­ter the event and he said, “I am over­joyed by this suc­cess. I am emo­tion­al, this is the best feel­ing in my life. I have worked this fil­ly twice in the last sev­en days and the train­er John O’Brien was very hap­py with her. I was ex­treme­ly hap­py to ride her. There were many things rid­ing against her like the fact that she had nev­er raced around two turns but she is a class act. This was a walk in the park.”

Pun­ters and tur­fites made the fil­ly Head­lines Again, who was hav­ing her sec­ond start for the year, as the 2-5 bet­ting favourite with sta­ble­mate For­ev­er Grand well sup­port­ed at 9-5 in the bet­ting and the third O’Brien-trained horse Un­cle Rog, third in the bet­ting at 5-1.

Con­tin­u­ing Khelawan said, “She went down well to the box­es and she went in with­out much fuss. Once the gates opened, she was very quick­ly away for the fea­ture on Re­pub­lic Day. She was tak­en on by Hot Rod Kash­ton and Un­be­liev­able. So I took her back and wait­ed.

“How­ev­er, go­ing up the back­stretch, I thought that they were go­ing too slow and al­lowed her an inch of rein and she went up and put her head in front. At the far turn, she was trav­el­ling su­perbly and I al­lowed her to stride out when Se­cret Pages tried to close on me. At the cor­ner, it was all over when I asked her to go win the race and she quick­ened away em­phat­i­cal­ly for an easy suc­cess. I re­al­ly want­ed to cry. This was the Der­by that I just won.”

Com­ing to the cor­ner, Khelawan, who was seek­ing his first Der­by suc­cess had a four-length lead on Se­cret Pages which was well pre­pared by Glenn Mendez. For­ev­er Grand was com­ing with his run but he was run­ning out of time. In the fi­nal 300 me­tres, Head­lines Again quick­ened up im­pres­sive­ly to run away with the Der­by by four and a half lengths. Se­cret Pages stayed on strong­ly to get sec­ond with For­ev­er Grand stay­ing on for third three lengths be­hind the run­ner-up.

Head­lines Again reg­is­tered the time of 2:13.53 for the trip.

One thing is cer­tain, Khelawan land­ed yet an­oth­er Der­by win­ner for O’Brien.

The record speaks for it­self as the cham­pi­on train­er con­tin­ued his dom­i­nance of the “Triple Crown”. O’Brien, who won the first leg of the “Triple Crown” with Un­cle Rog. In the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic, the Poon Tip Stud Farm-owned For­ev­er Grand won on the turf course like a true cham­pi­on. On Tues­day, he won the NL­CB Trinidad Der­by with Head­lines Again.

Khelawan was the day’s lead­ing rid­er land­ing three win­ners. He won the sec­ond event with Strik­ing Chrome for train­er Carl Ram­baran. He joined with his sta­ble in the third and pushed Princess Roy­al to vic­to­ry be­fore win­ning the fea­ture with Head­lines Again.

Well done, Dil­lon Khelawan! Just one piece is miss­ing now, the Jock­ey’s Cham­pi­onship.