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
