EDMONTON – Antonio Whitehall tasted added-money success on Saturday’s lucrative card at Century Mile when he combined with 3-1 choice Great Escape to win the CAN$100 000 Speed to Spare Championship Stakes in Canada.
Going a mile and fourth for the three-year-olds and upward in one of the day’s supporting feature races, Whitehall guided the four-year-old brown gelding to a 1-3/4 length win in a time of two minutes, 04 seconds flat.
Trinidadian jockey Brian Boodramsingh was second aboard rank 45-1 outsider Itsmyday while Jamaican Dane Nelson took 7-1 bet Glava to third, barely holding off favourite At Attention with Antonio Reyes aboard.
Glava and another 64-1 longshot Railway tussled through the quarter run in 22.58 seconds and the half in 46.66, before Glava dismissed his rival to open up a near two-length lead on the far turn.
Whitehall raced Great Escape just off the pace early on but then went in pursuit of the leaders, catching Glava in the stretch and pulling away in the final yards to win handsomely.
Barbadian jockey N’Rico Prescod also grabbed some of the spotlight at Century when he won twice on the programme.
He opened his account in race three over a mile and five-eighths when he paired with 4-1 bet Lonesome Cat to trounce the three-year-olds and upward by 2-1/2 lengths.
Longshot Prenton led briefly at the start before Lonesome Cat picked up the running leaving the Grandstand Turn and never relinquished it.
Prescod returned in race seven with War Giant, carrying the favourite to a narrow win over the three-year-olds and upward, going seven furlongs.
Nine-to-one choice Schochoh, 8-1 bet Sharp Dressed Beau and 5-1 chance Estifraad all contested the lead early on before Prescod brought his eight-year-old chestnut gelding from well off the pace to edge the field by a neck.
