Husbands celebrates Fort Erie title

FORT ERIE, Canada, CMC – Barbadian Christopher Husbands logged a handsome brace on the season-ending nine-race card, as he completed a hat-trick of titles at Fort Erie here Tuesday.

The 33-year-old won race two with favourite “Don’t Stop Dreamin” and returned to capture race seven with another favourite Beyond Talented, to finish the five-month campaign with 40 wins.

Husbands, who won the 2022 title with 32 wins and the 2021 crown with 52 wins, also ended the season with CAN$469,179.

Melanie Pinto finished second on 31 wins with Jamaican Kirk Johnson a further six back in third. 

Entering the final day at the Central Canada Oval all but assured of the title, Husbands celebrated with two wins from his five outings.

He opened his account in a six-furlong sprint for the three-year-old and upwards, getting Don’t Stop Dreamin to the wire five lengths clear.

After stalking with the three-year-old chestnut gelding, Husbands overtook pace-setter Mighty Pele on the turn to dominate the stretch run.

Husbands’s second win came over a mile and sixteenth when he combined with three-year-old gelding Beyond Talented to get the better of the three-year-old and upward maidens by three lengths.

Two-to-one bet Mr Rudy and 18-1 outsider Sing Dixie duelled through the half-mile in 47.18 seconds with Husbands racing Beyond Talented just off the pace.

Husbands roused his gelding on the far turn, grabbed the lead at the top of the stretch and had very few challengers in the lane.

With his latest title conquest, Husbands moved his tally in Canada to five, following successes at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg in 2014 and 2016.

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