Ramsammy leads Caribbean four-timer

TORONTO, Canada: The Barbados combination of trainer Sean Hall and owner Elias Haloute registered one of four Caribbean wins on Friday afternoon at the Woodbine race track, Canada’s top horse racing facility. Hall, son of former West Indies fast bowler Wes Hall, won the first race with the Haloute-owned Running Away, and there were wins as well for Trinidadian two-time Woodbine champion jockey Emile Ramsammy, Barbadian jockey Simon Husbands, and Jamaican trainer Norman DeSouza as Caribbean men swept half of the events on the eight-race programme.

Hall opened the programme when Haloute’s three-year-old gelding Running Away won the first race by 3/4 length under jockey Julia Brimo. Running Away covered the mile and 16th event in one minute 47.37 seconds.  Ramsammy, champion jockey here in 1996 and 1997, scored aboard the favourite Snappy Tim in the third race. An even-money favourite in the Can$29,400 third race, Snappy Time led the field from the start of the six-furlong sprint under Ramsammy, and registered a 1 ? length victory. It was the 16th win of the season for Ramsammy, who is lying seventh in the jockeys’ standings. 

Husbands had scored in the second race aboard the 2-1 chance Proud Lady, edging the 18-1 outsider Italian Accent  by a neck in a superb front-running ride. DeSouza got his win with the three-year-old filly Bad Betsy in the seventh race. Bad Betsy won the seven-furlong event by three lengths as the 5-2 favourite.