Brian Harding - FILE
ARIMA, TRINIDAD (CMC)
REIGNING JAMAICA CHAMPION jockey Brian Harding shot to the top of the early Trinidad and Tobago standings when he rode three winners on Saturday's card at his home track Santa Rosa Park.
Harding won the first, seventh and ninth races to climb to five wins and sole leadership in the jockeys' championship table after two race days of the new season.
Visiting Barbadian riders Patrick Husbands and Jonathan Grant also scored wins on the 10-race card.
Harding, still undecided about whether he will return to Jamaica this season to defend his title, kicked off his successful afternoon with a 2-1/4 length victory aboard the five-year-old horse Inthelineoffire.
The seven-time T&T champion jockey secured his second win when he guided the Jamaica-bred Ray of Light to victory in the seventh race.
The consistent four-year-old chestnut gelding, bred - Royal Minister out of Radiance - by Owen and Soloman Sharpe in Jamaica, was 3-1/2 lengths clear at the finish of the 1200-metre sprint, covering the trip in one minute 14 and 4/5ths of a second.
CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE
It was the second win in the last three starts for Ray of Light.
Harding, T&T's champion in 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2003, and 2004, completed his three-timer with the in form colt Fresh Wings.
The four-year-old galloped to a 3-1/4 length victory under Harding, covering the 1750-metre event in 1:41.3/5ths.
Harding is two ahead in the championship table, stalked by Patrick Husbands and local apprentice Nela Mohammed, with three wins each.
Husbands scored a classy win in the fourth race, the TT$23,000 (US$3,682) Starter Allowance event aboard the four-year-old colt Marci's Dreamer.
The three-time champion at Canada's Woodbine race track displayed his adroit handling of a racehorse when he switched Marci's Dreamer from the outside to the inside to edge promising Barbadian apprentice Chris Husbands (no relation) aboard Salsa Moves to win the six-horse feature over 1,200 metres.
Salsa Moves accelerated impressively in the upper-stretch and appeared poised for victory with a three-length lead.
But his mount began to weaken in deep stretch and Patrick Husbands - aboard the second favourite - on the outside, switched his mount Marci's Dreamer inside the final 100 metres to the inside to snatch victory by a short head, in 1:12.3/5ths.
Grant secured his first win in Trinidad and Tobago when he steered the three-year-old filly Ice Timber to a 1-3/4 length victory in the second race.
Ice Timber won the 1350-metre sprint in 1:23.0.
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