NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CMC):

Jamaican Shaun Bridgmohan continued to challenge for a top-three spot at Fair Grounds, with a double on the 11-race card on Saturday.

Bridgmohan captured race two with favourite Original Kitten before returning to win race six aboard Propelleroneway, a 2-1 bet.

With the double, the 33-year-old reinsman continued in fourth place with 60 wins, three adrift of John Jacinto and four off second-place James Graham.

Exciting female rider Rosie Napravnik is the runaway leader with 96 victories in the season which wraps up March 31.

Bridgmohan opened his account over 5¹/² furlongs when he carried the four-year-old chestnut filly Original Kitten to a strong win by 3³/⁴ lengths over the three-year-old and upward fillies and mares.

Astral, with Graham aboard, whipped the field through the opening fraction in 22.08 seconds, with Spades of Wild challenging closely and Original Kitten tracking two lengths back.

Bridgmohan roused Original Kitten in the upper stretch and she snatched the lead inside the final furlong, getting to the wire unchallenged in a time of one minute, 5.88 seconds.

In race six over 7¹/² furlongs, Bridgmohan saved ground early on with Propelleroneway, as favourite Mama's Dia and Seeking Luck exchanged the lead throughout the first half mile, run in 49.56.

Propelleroneway was urged on in the upper stretch and got clear despite drifting out to reach the wire 3¹/² lengths clear of Seeking Luck.

BARBADIAN WINNER

Meanwhile, ace Barbadian reinsman Patrick Husbands had perhaps his best day at Gulfstream Park this season when he won twice on the 11-race card last Saturday.

The veteran, a leading member of the colony at the renowned Woodbine racetrack in Canada, snatched victory in the US$57,000 race two aboard 14-1 outsider Perfect Afleet for noted trainer Roger Attfield, and followed up with another win in the US$60,500 race nine with 5-2 chance Hyper.

Husbands has now won five times in 66 starts for the winter season at Gulfstream, where he has campaigned since the Woodbine season wrapped up in mid-December last year.

He has earned US$285,000 and languishes down the leader board headed by the outstanding Venezuelan Javier Castellano who has 77 wins and earnings of US$3.2 million.

Husbands found himself in the winners' enclosure when he narrowly edged out the favourite Finale, ridden by Castellano, going a mile and sixteenth for the four-year-olds.

He raced Perflect Afleet off the pace down on the inside as Hello Prince, Steel Man and Two Is to Many dragged the field down the backstretch in a brisk 22.74 seconds for the first quarter.

Husbands shifted the seven-year-old chestnut horse out on the far turn to be three-wide heading into the final stretch, before kicking on to outrun Hello Prince and edge home by three-quarter lengths.

In race nine over another mile and sixteenth for the four-year-olds and upward, Husbands held Hyper at the rear of the field as Forward March, Space Race and Stormy Lord disputed the lead.

He then swung the six-year-old bay wide on the turn and rushed to the front chased by Finale, but held on at the wire to win by a neck.