HARDING
ARIMA, Trinidad (CMC):
REIGNING JAMAICA cham-pion jockey Brian Harding shot to the top of the early Trinidad and Tobago standings when he rode three winners on Saturday's card at his home track Santa Rosa Park.
Harding won the first, seventh and ninth races to climb to five wins and sole leadership in the jockeys' championship table after two race days of the new season.
Visiting Barbadian riders Patrick Husbands and Jonathan Grant also scored wins on the 10-race card.
Harding, still undecided about whether he will return to Jamaica this season to defend his title, kicked off his successful afternoon with a 2-1/4 length victory aboard the five-year-old horse Inthelineoffire.
The seven-time T&T cham-pion jockey secured his second win when he guided the Jamaica-bred Ray of Light to victory in the seventh race.
The consistent four-year-old chestnut gelding, bred by Royal Minister out of Radiance and owned by Solomon Sharpe in Jamaica, was 3-1/2 lengths clear at the finish of the 1200-metre sprint, covering the trip in one minute 14 and 4/5ths of a second.
It was the second win in the last three starts for Ray of Light.
Harding, T&T's cham-pion in 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2003, and 2004, completed his three-timer with the in form colt Fresh Wings.
The four-year-old galloped to a 3-1/4 length victory under Harding, covering the 1750-metre event in 1:41.3/5ths.
Harding is two ahead in the championship table, stalked by Patrick Husbands and local apprentice Nela Mohammed, with three wins each.
