Joseph maintains handsome lead with double win

Ace Barbadian trainer Saffie Joseph Jr maintained his double-digit lead over his nearest rival with another successful day on Sunday at the Gulfstream Park racetrack in the United States.

Joseph saddled a pair of winners on the 11-race card and is the runaway leader in the trainers’ championship with 39 wins for the spring-summer season – which opened on April 4 and closes on September 29 – and remained 18 clear of Jose Francisco D’Angelo, the only other with 20 or more wins.

Joseph produced the Brazil-bred, 4-1 chance Novo Sol that won by one length under Drayden Van Dyke in the US$41 000 starter optional, claiming the second race featuring four-year-olds and upward.

Van Dyke rated Novo Sol at the back of the seven-horse field under a firm hold before the seven-year-old bay horse was ridden to advance four wide near the quarter pole, continued four wide into the straight, and edged up later under strong handling to finish in one minute, 40.05 seconds – 1.95 seconds off the track record.

Joseph also saddled the odds-on favourite Practically Dark that won by four lengths under Van Dyke in the US$60 000 maiden special weight sixth race for maidens three years old and contested over six furlongs on the dirt course.

Van Dyke put Practically Dark to stalk the pace three deep from the outside, and he asked the three-year-old bay gelding to challenge Zack’s Mysterio, under Emisael Jaramillo, and his mount finished strongly to edge clear under steady handling for a time of 1 min, 11.18 secs.

(CMC)