Crawford wins but blank day for Husbands

FORT ERIE, Canada – Jamaican Mark-Lee Buchanan and Barbadian Juan Crawford

posted impressive doubles on Monday’s eight-race card, to take the spotlight at Fort Erie as runaway leader Chris Husbands went winless in five rides.

Buchanan rode winners in race one over six furlongs with 4-5 chance Act of Bob and in race five over seven furlongs with 3-1 bet Ready at Dawn.

Crawford, the defending champion at the southern Ontario racetrack, picked up wins in race three over six furlongs with 15-1 outsider Reine Secret and in race seven over six furlongs with 9-1 chance Dynamic Force.

Both Buchahan and Crawford have 10 wins for the season which got underway on June 15, and are 13 adrift of Husbands who came up short in Monday’s outing.

His best finish came in race seven with favourite Turkish Time when he ended second, 7-¼ lengths behind Buchanan and Ready at Dawn.

It was Buchanan who reached the winners’ circle first, making all the running with four-year-old gelding Act of Bob, to beat the three-year-olds by half-length.

And his second win came in another front-running effort when he partnered with three-year-old gelding Ready at Dawn, producing a gate-to-wire effort to thrash the three-year-old and upward maidens.

Crawford, meanwhile, who finished second in race one, just behind Act of Bob, and third in race two with 21-1 longshot Machisima, notched his first win when he unveiled a front-running performance with three-year-old chestnut filly Reine Secret to clobber the three-year-old and upward fillies and mares by three lengths.

And Crawford returned to the winners’ circle when he brought five-year-old brown gelding Dynamic Force from off the pace to collar the three-year-olds and upward by 1-½ lengths.