Husbands passes $2 million mark with brace

TORONTO, Canada, (CMC) – Veteran jockey Patrick Husbands cracked 50 wins and CAN $2 million in winnings for yet another season at Woodbine, when he rode a brace on Saturday’s 10-race card.
The 44-year-old captured the $61 000 race three with 11-1 chance Moonlight Rain before returning to take the $51 200 race five with 3-1 bet Entwistle.
Husbands, a seven-time Woodbine champion, lies fourth on exactly 50 wins in the standings headed by Eurico Rosa da Silva on 81.
In the money charts, however, Husbands sits third with $2 019 204 and is one of only three riders this season to pass the $2 million mark, with da Silva on $3.3 million and former champion Luis Contreras on $2.6 million.
Barbadian Husbands opened his account over six furlongs when he brought brown filly Moonlight Rain with a late run to edge the two-year-old maidens by a neck.
Legal Gump and Adios Muchaho duelled through the half-mile before Husbands brought Moonlight Rain from mid-pack with a daring stretch run to get up in the final yards.
His second win on the card came over a mile and three-eighths when he again staged a late rally to get the five-year-old chestnut gelding Entwistle to a half-length victory over the three-year-old and upwards.
Husbands stalked the pace along the inside as Hemmin and Hawing and Tonedaddy disputed the lead in easy fractions of 25.56 seconds for the quarter-mile and 50.69 for the half.
Once in the stretch, Husbands angled the gelding off the rails, duelled with then leader Hampstead Heath before getting by. Husbands, a seven-time Woodbine champion, lies fourth on exactly 50 wins in the standings.