Husbands stars with double stakes win at Woodbine

TORONTO, Canada (CMC):

Barbadian ace Patrick Husbands produced contrasting rides to capture two of the five stakes races on Saturday's ten-race card at Woodbine.

The 51-year-old made all the running aboard 2-1 chance Paramount Prince in race eight to win the Grade III $150,000 Dominion Day Stakes by 3 3/4 lengths, before returning in the very next race with a stalking ride to get 5-1 choice Essex Serpent to the wire a length clear in the $150,000 HPIbet Marine Stakes, also a Grade III event.

Husbands now has 18 wins from 71 outings, with $1.08 million in earnings for the season which got under way on April 27 and wraps up on December 15.

Up against the four-year-olds and upwards in the Dominion over a mile and eighth, Husbands sent the four-year-old chestnut gelding Paramount Prince - last year's King's Plate winner - to the front to lay down relaxed fractions of 24.83 seconds for the quarter and 49.47 for the half.

Ten-to-one Stanley House chased from second with favourite Tyson and 59-1 chance Collective Force, all keeping tabs on the lead.

The race quickened considerably at the three-eighth, Stanley House bearing down on Paramount Prince, with Tyson also challenging on the outside.

Once in the stretch, however, Paramount Prince produced an explosive turn of pace along the rails to storm to the finish in a time of one minute, 39.45 seconds.

"He's all speed, you know, and he has a very high cruising speed," Husbands said afterwards. "As long as you don't play with him, he will give you everything."

A seven-time Woodbine champion, Husbands was also dominant in the Marine over a mile and sixteenth, guiding the bay gelding Essex Serpent to a solid victory over the three-year-olds.

Thirteen-to-one bet Babbo showed early to take the race to the first bend before Husbands brought Essex Serpent from a stalking position to snatch the lead at the nine-sixteenth.

Native Land and Cameo Performance both rallied at the top of the stretch in pursuit of the leader, but Husbands kept the gelding focused to win, easing up at the wire.

"I knew I was on the best horse," said Husbands.

Both wins came for champion trainer Mark Casse.