Barbadian Juan Crawford leads the way at Fort Erie again

For the second successive race day, Barbadian jockey Juan Crawford had another good day in the saddle to lead another dominant showing from Caribbean riders on Tuesday’s programme at the Fort Erie racetrack.

Crawford, 42, the reigning champion jockey, logged another double on the seven-race card and now has 24 wins for the season – 21 behind runaway leading jockey and compatriot Christopher Husbands, whose dry spell finally broke.

Jamaican Kirk Johnson was again successful and remained in the top echelons of the jockeys’ standings, and his win meant that Caribbean riders won four races on the day’s card.

Crawford opened the day’s card with an easy win aboard the 3-5 favourite Gimbala over five furlongs on the dirt and followed up with another comfortable ride astride the odds-on favourite Capoeira in the fifth race over a mile on the turf.

In between, Husbands returned to winning ways with victory on the 5-4 favourite Call Me Jelly Roll in the third race over five furlongs on the dirt and Johnson kept up appearances with nifty win on the 4-1 choice Be the Change in the fourth race over five-and-a-half furlongs.

Gimbala set the pace throughout the first race, never relenting and Crawford kept the six-year-old, dark bay mare to task to win two lengths clear in a time of 58.71 seconds.

Crawford put Capoeira to track the early leaders, but the six-year-old, chestnut mare grabbed the lead on the far turn, and she responded in the stretch to extend her lead and finish five lengths clear in one minute, 40.33 seconds.

Call Me Jelly Roll was slow off the mark, but Husbands too, put the five-year-old, bay mare into the lead on the final turn and she prevailed in the stretch for a two-length score in 1 min, 00.61 secs.

In the next race, Johnson put Be The Change to track the leaders from the outside before the seven-year-old, chestnut gelding was a factor on the final turn and drew clear in the final stretch to finish 4 3/4 lengths clear in 1:04.63.

Leading Jockeys at Fort Erie

(@ Tuesday, September 21, 2021)

1 Christopher Husbands (Barbados) 45 wins

2 Juan Crawford (Barbados) 24

3 Sunny Singh (Guyana) 20

4 Kirk Johnson (Jamaica) 18

5 Helen Vanek 18

6 Mark-Lee Buchanan (Jamaica) 15

7 Omar Moreno 15

8 Melanie Pinto 15

9 Ademar Santos 10

10 Michael David 10