Steering the 1-5 favourite Milwaukee Bay to victory in Monday’s final day first race, Husbands finished the five-month-long season with 32 wins, two ahead of title rival Melanie Pinto, who went winless on the final day.
The three-year-old filly Milwaukee Bay, trained by Daniel Wills, was held off the pace by Husbands and flew past the front-running 8-1 bet Cloud Runner in the homestretch to win the CAN$14,700 Maiden Claiming event by 4-1/4 lengths. Milwaukee Bay clocked one minute 49.02 seconds for the mile and sixteenth trip.
Although finishing No.2 to Husbands in wins in the 2022 campaign, Pinto, who was leading rider for long periods during the season, earned the title of Outstanding Rider, voted by her peers.
Three other Caribbean riders finished in the top six of the jockeys’ table – Jamaicans MarkLee Buchanan (24) and Kirk Johnson (20th) at fourth and fifth respectively with Barbadian Juan Crawford sixth on 19 wins.
Husbands, 32, won his first Fort Erie title last year and now has four jockeys’ championship titles in Canada, having lifted crowns at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg in 2014 and 2016.
As a 16-year-old, Husbands had won the 2006 Trinidad Derby aboard Sara’s Music and he now has 590 career wins in Canadian racing. This 2022 jockeys’ triumph for Husbands makes it 10 times in the last 12 years a Caribbean rider is No.1 at Fort Erie.
Crawford, five-time champion Johnson, and the Barbadians Chris Griffith and Terry Husbands have also been Fort Erie champions in the past dozen years.
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.
Armond, who was 67, was one of regional horse racing’s premier executives and served the sport in various capacities for some 40 years before retiring in 2020.
Armond, who followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather as a racing administrator, first shot to prominence as a commentator in the late 1970s. Rated as one of the best in the business he was awarded the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) Golden Microphone award in 1984.
Armond went on to have a commentary stint in Detroit, Michigan before heading into administration. During his time as an administrator, Armond served as Director of Racing at Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited (SVREL), in his home country Jamaica, Executive Officer of the Arima Race Club in Trinidad, and a chief executive at the Barbados Turf club for eight years. Armond was celebrated for longstanding service at a ceremony, at Jamaica’s Caymanas Park in December 2020.
Ridden by N’Rico Prescod for champion trainer Victor Cheeseman, War Eagle – part-owned by West Indies batsman Kraigg Brathwaite - shot to the front approaching the final bend and accelerated to a titanic 19-length victory while scuppering the Triple Crown bid of Guineas winner Déjà vu.
In only his third lifetime start, War Eagle clocked two minutes, eight seconds for the nine-furlong trip on a slow Garrison Savannah turf chased by the 3-2 favourite Déjà vu, with Ollivander (3-1) a distant third.
“I knew he had the potential (to win) but I was surprised by the big margin of the win even though I was confident,” triumphant rider Prescod told SportsMax.TV.
Ollivander led out of the gates ahead of the Trinidad & Tobago-bred Edelweiss but quickly gave way to the 11-1 bet Conflictofinterest, who cruised into a clear lead.
War Eagle, meanwhile, had a troubled start as Prescod’s left foot had slipped out of the stirrups. He was near the back of the 12-horse field in 10th spot but he was able to re-insert and balance himself aboard the chestnut colt just over a furlong into the race.
Jockey Jarrel Beckles was three lengths in front aboard Conflictofinterest at the halfway stage, tracked by Ollivander and Déjà vu with the smoothly recovering War Eagle a further three lengths back in fourth.
Ollivander and Déjà vu flew past Conflictofinterest at the four-furlong marker while War Eagle gained steadily with a rail run.
Responding to a few left-hand cracks of the whip by the 22-year-old Prescod, War Eagle surged to the front and widened his lead by five lengths at the top of the homestretch.
Prescod eased his mount and began his celebration from the middle of the homestretch as War Eagle emphatically avenged his narrow loss to Déjà vu in last month’s Guineas.
“I was a bit far off the pace early and I started to panic a bit but I just kept it together and trusted the horse’s strength,” said Prescod after his second Classic triumph, having landed the 2019 Barbados Derby aboard 21-1 upset winner Nzinga just over 15 months ago.
Because War Eagle was among the least experienced in the field, trainer Cheeseman anticipated the colt’s improvement coming off his Guineas loss by a neck to Déjà vu three weeks earlier.
“He ran a bit green that day and we kept him fresh after the Guineas,” Cheeseman said.
“Remember, he hadn’t run for over a year before the Guineas and we knew he would be a far better horse for the Midsummer,” added Cheeseman, who was winning his third consecutive Midsummer Classic after scoring with Brave Star (2018) and Seventeenmillionus last year.
Cheeseman, the reigning Barbados champion racehorse trainer for a record seven years in a row, is now confident the K&C Stables-owned War Eagle, by Eagle’s Peak out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Stream Kid, can land the final leg of the Triple Crown, the Barbados Derby on December 26 (Boxing Day). “Oh yes, once he feels good on that day,” Cheeseman said.
