ROCKY VIEW – New­ly-crowned Assini­boia Downs cham­pi­on jock­ey An­to­nio White­hall led Caribbean win­ners with back-to-back wins on Sun­day at the Cen­tu­ry Downs race­track in Al­ber­ta, Cana­da.

The 29-year-old Bar­ba­di­an reins­man now has eight wins for the sea­son, which opened on Sep­tem­ber 9 at the rac­ing oval near Cal­gary, and he is sec­ond in the stand­ings be­hind four-time Ja­maican cham­pi­on jock­ey Dane Nel­son, who al­so logged a sin­gle win on the eight-race card.

Emerg­ing Bar­ba­di­an rid­er N’Ri­co Prescod col­lect­ed his sev­enth win of the sea­son on the card, and he is third in the stand­ings, and com­pa­tri­ot Da Sean Gaskin land­ed his first win.

White­hall got the first of his two wins when he steered 3-1 choice Skip’s Rock to a three-quar­ters-of-a-length win in the CAN $23,000 al­lowance third race over 1 400 me­tres on the dirt.

Skip’s Rock quick­ly took com­mand and led the field through the back­stretch be­fore White­hall got the three-year-old, dark bay fil­ly to move clear in­to the stretch and she held un­der late pres­sure for a time of one minute and 24.37 sec­onds, on­ly 2.48 ticks off the track record.

White­hall scored his sec­ond win aboard 7-5 favourite Mi Rey­na that took the CAN $12,500 starter op­tion­al claim­ing fourth race over 1,500 me­tres on the dirt by 2-3/4 lengths.

Mi Rey­na con­test­ed the lead ear­ly be­fore the five-year-old, dark bay mare gained a short ad­van­tage near­ing the stretch and drew away to fin­ish in 1:31.94.

Nel­son was the first to show when he drove a 7-2 bet Sharp Dressed Beau to a two-length win in the CAN $ 10,000 claim­ing the sec­ond race over 1,500m on the dirt.

Sharp Dressed Beau vied for the ear­ly and showed the way through the back­stretch be­fore Nel­son got the sev­en-year-old, chest­nut geld­ing to re­spond to a chal­lenge from Give Em Hack Beck, un­der Trinida­di­an jock­ey Keis­han Bal­go­b­in, and drove clear un­der han­dling to clock 1:32.13.

Gaskin proved him­self when he guid­ed 8-1 chance Re­cio’s Skye to a win by a head in a time of 1:20.11 in the CAN $11,500 maid­en claim­ing the sev­enth race over 1,300m on the dirt, and Prescod pi­lot­ed 3-1 chance Four O Six Creed to a 2-3/4 lengths win in a time of 1:25.04 in the CAN $23 000 al­lowance eighth race over 1,400m on the dirt.

CMC