Champion jockey-designate Jermaine Bridgmohan aboard Leona's Knight at Calder Race Course on Sunday. The teenage Jamaican riding sensation will be crowned champion at the end of today's meet.
Jamaican Kirk Ziadie landed one winner yesterday and mainitained pole position for the trainers' title heading into today's final card of the Tropical-at-Calder meet in Florida.
Chasing his first championship win at Calder, Ziadie scored a win in the third race when Eddie Castro piloted home DUSST, a first-time runner.
DUSST's win pushed Ziadie's tally to 23, two ahead of his closest rival, five-time champion Bill White's 21.
Both trainers failed to secure a win on Sunday, up to which point Ziadie upheld his tremendous strike rate. His 22 victories then came from 43 starters - a win rate of better than 50 per cent, while White had gotten his 21 winners from 101 starters in 58 days, a very respectable 20 per cent. Manny Tortora, the track's all-time leader in winners, is third with 17 winners.
Both Ziadie and White had a pair of runners yesterday, but White has horses entered in six races on today's closing day card while Ziadie has just two entrants.
CHAMPION-DESIGNATE
Meanwhile, champion jockey-designate Jermaine Bridgmohan landed three winners on Sunday afternoon to extend his lead and his new record at the Tropical-at-Calder meet.
The 18-year-old Jamaican apprentice, who broke the meet record for wins just under two weeks ago, won races six, 10 and 11 on the 12-race card to boost his tally to 105 in a phenomenal start to his riding career.
In only his first year of race-riding, Bridgmohan has achieved an unprecedented 100 wins at a Tropical-at-Calder meet and he will be formally crowned champion rider when the meet ends today.
His nearest rival in the jockeys' standings, veteran Manoel Cruz, is 20 behind on 85 wins.
Cruz won 323 races for the year to rank fourth nationally behind Julien Leparoux's 403.
In the US$13,000 sixth race over a mile and 70 yards, Bridgmohan won easily with the three-year-old gelding Collective, a 3-to-1 second favourite, in one minute 44.14 seconds. He led the eight-horse field and won by 10 lengths.
Bridgmohan, who started race-riding less than six months ago, captured the 10th race over 61/2 furlongs, worth US$26,500, with the 6-5 favourite Gold Timber.
He used the three-year-old gelding to stalk the leaders down the backstretch and surged forward coming off the final turn to win by 11/4 lengths in 1:08.01.
Bridgmohan completed his triple success in the US$28,500 race 11 over a mile and 70 yards with the 2-1 second favourite BB's Concert.
Coming from behind, Bridgmohan roused his mount for a winning run down the homestretch and moved clear near the finish to win by 13/4 lengths in 1:43.06.
Bridgmohan went past the previous Tropical-at-Calder meet record of 84 wins - by Cornelio Velasquez - on Wednesday, December 20 and has now ridden 44 winners in the last 19 race days.
Contributed by Jim Lisa at Calder Race Course
