Husbands maintains lead in jockey standings

Championship leader Chris Husbands logged a double to lead a string of Caribbean victories at Fort Erie on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old Barbadian jockey won race four over 6-½ furlongs with favourite Ernie’s Martini before returning to take race seven over five furlongs with 3-1 chance Crumlin Bird.

Husbands, the two-time reigning Fort Erie champion, tops the standings with 19 wins, five clear of Pierre Mailhot, with Jamaican Kirk Johnson third on 12.

Johnson was one of the Caribbean jockeys to taste success on Tuesday’s seven-race card, piloting 8-5 bet Khozzy Valintine to a narrow victory over the three-year-old and upward fillies and mares, going 6-½ furlongs.

Husbands and 5-1 chance More Savvy led early but Johnson and the five-year-old mare Khozzy Valintine recovered from a bad start to chase them down and win by a head.

Barbadian Juan Crawford was also in winners’ row, combining with 4-1 bet Unbridled Inferno to trounce the three-year-old and upward maidens by 2-½ lengths over seven furlongs, after coming from well off the pace.

However, it was Husbands who took the plaudits for his brace which kept him on pace for a hat-trick of titles at the western Canada oval.

His first win came aboard three-year-old gelding Ernie’s Martini, stalking the leader I Live by Faith before engaging at the top of the stretch and pulling away to get the better of the three-year-old and upward maidens by 3-¼ lengths.

Husbands then finished fourth in race five and third in race six before reaching the winners’ enclosure again when he partnered with five-year-old chestnut mare Crumlin Bird to beat the three-year-old and upward fillies and mares by a length.

Forty-one-to-one longshot Easy Access produced the early fractions before being caught in the stretch by the eventual winner. (CMC)

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