Ramsammy closes off on winning note

TORONTO, Canada: Caribbean jockeys Emile Ramsammy and Jono Jones ended the 2003 Woodbine season in style on Sunday by sharing the stakes races on  the last day of racing for the year at Canada’s premier race track.

Trinidadian Ramsammy scored a brilliant upset win in the CAN$143,500  Valedictory Stakes, and Jones, of Barbados, guided the favourite Winter Whiskey to victory in the CAN$135,250 Kingarvie Stakes. Both riders scored doubles on a day their Caribbean colleague Patrick  Husbands, of Barbados, failed by just two wins to retain his Woodbine jockeys’ title. In a dramatic stretch duel, the 18-1 chance Hydrogen, with Ramsammy up, and 5-2 second favourite Affirmed Feeling (Husbands), fought to the wire in the 1-3/4 mile Valedictory marathon that ended in a thrilling photo finish. At the wire, Hydrogen won by a nose in three minutes 0.28 seconds. “It’s a great feeling,” said Ramsammy, who won his second Valedictory, after Cimarron Secret (1997). “He was just grand. It worked out perfectly,” Ramsammy added.

Hydrogen’s assistant trainer Greg Degannes focused on the man in the saddle in his post-race comments. “One of Trinidad and Tobago’s greatest products is Emile Ramsammy. He’s a tremendous jockey with great skill and patience. He just suited that horse perfectly today,” Degannes said. Ramsammy also won the fourth race aboard Creative Lady (4-1) by 2-3/4 lengths. Winter Whiskey justified his favouritism with a smashing 3 1/4-length win in the mile and sixteenth Kingarvie Stakes in 1:46.15 under Jones, who was scoring his second stakes win in two days.

On Saturday, Jones had captured the CAN$137,375 Kennedy Road Stakes aboard the favourite Chris’s Bad Boy in a new track record time for six furlongs of 1:08.05. Jones, who enjoyed his best year at Woodbine since arriving here in 2001, got his other win through Bravely (3-1) by eight lengths in the eighth race. Ramsammy, a two-time Woodbine champion, finished third in the 2003 jockeys’ standings — behind Todd Kabel (160) and Husbands (158) — with 123 winners, and Jones ended sixth with 89 wins.