Just days after completing a ninth-consecutive Trainers' Championship triumph at Florida’s Gulfstream Park, Barbadian Saffie Joseph Jnr, kicked off the new season with a double on Thursday’s opening day of the Spring/Summer meet.

Joseph won the fourth and sixth races, the richest on the eight-race card. In the US$60,000 Maiden Special Weight fourth race, Joseph’s four-year-old filly Divine won with Edwin Gonzalez aboard as the 3-2 favourite. Joseph completed the double with 2-1 bet Imonra in the US$62,000 Allowance Optional Claiming sixth race with Paco Lopez riding.

The Spring/Summer meet, which Joseph has won for the past four consecutive years since 2020, runs until September 29.

Joseph is currently ranked eighth on the 2024 trainers’ list in all of North America with horses’ earnings of US$3.07 million.

Reflecting on his championship feat which he wrapped up last weekend, Joseph attributed the win to the quality of his team. The 37-year-old ended the campaign with 66 winners and in excess of US $3.4 million in purse earnings, once again ahead of Hall-of-Famer Todd Pletcher, who finished second with 37 winners.

“We’re always trying to get better, and to win a third championship meet in a row was very gratifying for all the work that the staff put in, and that’s what puts me in this position. I have a good team that works hard and we try to do it together. And the owners that supply these horses, the horses are the backbone and the big piece of the puzzle," Joseph said.

“We’ve got quality and we’ve got quantity, and that’s what you need to win titles and to stay relevant in today’s industry. You’ve got to keep winning. That’s what people want," he added.

Ryan Moore produced another masterclass of race riding to help Warm Heart bow out in a blaze of glory at Gulfstream Park.

Aidan O’Brien’s filly was chasing a third elite-level success in the $1million 1/ST BET Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational and went off at 12-5.

Moore was happy to track the front-running Main Event for much of the nine-furlong contest but made a daring dive up that horse’s inside entering the home straight.

It was a move which brought back memories of his brilliant Breeders’ Cup Turf triumph on Auguste Rodin and reaped the same reward.

Warm Heart sprinted through a gap on the rail to seize a decisive advantage and then repelled the late challenge of I’m Very Busy to win by half a length.

O’Brien said: “We’re absolutely delighted. It’s incredible. Ryan obviously gave her an incredible ride and has done such an incredible job.”

Moore added: “The leader was always leaning out and he was weakening, and I knew I had plenty of horse, so no problem. I was happy to wait.

“She’s always travelling very comfortably. I didn’t want to be there too early and I didn’t want to be tipping out into the straight, so I thought I’d just wait. She’s a great filly. She’s had an incredible year. She hasn’t had a bad race.”

It was a sixth success for Warm Heart, who last year prevailed in the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot, the Yorkshire Oaks and the Prix Vermeille.

The four-year-old is now set to embark on a second career as a broodmare, with a visit to stallion sensation Justify on the horizon.

“We’d love to have her and to be racing her, but the lads’ business is breeding these horses and she’s an absolutely incredible broodmare to be going to Justify,” said O’Brien on the Gulfstream Park website. “It’s so exciting, really.”

The $3million Pegasus World Cup was won by last year’s Preakness Stakes hero National Treasure, who edged out Senor Buscador by a neck for trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Flavien Prat.