Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer
EMMVEEPEE, ridden by in-form Wesley Henry, wins the sixth race over the straight five course at Caymanas Park on Saturday. - IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
TOP LIGHTWEIGHT jockey Wesley 'Callaloo' Henry believes he has a good shot of winning his second jockeys' championship if the breaks go his way.
Thanks to his second conse-cutive triple at Caymanas Park on Saturday, Henry is now joint leader with five-time champion Trevor Simpson and reigning champion Brian Harding in the standings, all on 41 wins.
RIDING CONFIDENTLY
"I'm where I want to be at this stage of the season," said Henry on Saturday. "Right now, I am in peak condition, I'm riding confidently and the winners are coming thick and fast."
The 31-year-old jockey won his only championship in 1997 - his first full season in the saddle.
The leaders are closely followed by Charles Hussey with 39 winners from 132 rides for the best strike rate.
Hussey won the last of his four championships in 2001 - the year Henry enjoyed a clear lead in the standings for the first eight months before fate dealt him a cruel blow.
On the last day of August, Henry was comfortably ahead of star apprentice Ramon Parish and Hussey.
However, he sustained a broken leg in a freak accident while taking the Wayne DaCosta-trained two-year-old colt KING OF DIXIE for an early-morning exercise gallop and was sidelined for the remainder of the year, leaving Hussey and Parish to fight it out for the title.
The young horse bolted with the jockey down the nine-furlong chute and crashed into a wall in the vicinity of the Valbert Marlowe stable.
BAD LUCK
Now bang in contention at the halfway stage of the season, 'Callaloo' is keeping his fingers crossed for obvious reasons.
Since riding for the first time in 1996, Henry has broken his right leg on four separate occasions (once while playing football), as well as his forearm, forcing him on the sidelines for long periods.
In November 2004, he broke his right forearm and right ankle when decked by his mount, GOOD TO GO, in the latter stages of the Red Strip Superstakes.
He was not only laid out for three months, but had to see a specialist in New York for treatment. The doctor inserted a metal plate in his forearm. And when the cast was taken off his hand and foot, therapy sessions followed.
DOWNPLAYING HIS CHANCES
Henry said he noted a recent article in Track & Pools where the writer was downplaying his chances against Harding and Simpson in the championship race, claiming his agent will need to go the extra mile for him to have a chance.
His response to that article was back-to-back triples, culminating with TOOT DI HOOT, EMMVEEPEE and EXPLOSIVE PEAK last Saturday.
On the previous Saturday, he won aboard SAYONARA, METEOR MAN and TRUE SENSATION.
"Don't rule me out," was his plea to racing fans. "I don't need winning rides. All I need is good rides and I will turn them into winners."
Saturday's three-timer pushed his lifetime tally at Caymanas Park to 512 winners, but Henry has ridden scores of winners on the North American circuit at tracks such as Aqueduct Saratoga in New York, Pimlico in Maryland, Calder and Hialeah in Miami, Meadowlands in New Jersey and Lone Star in Texas.
