Jamaica's Rajiv Maragh wins feature at Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS, New York (CMC):

Rajiv Maragh continued to show his class in the saddle, winning the US $750,000 feature Whitney Invitational Handicap in a triple on Saturday at the Saratoga Race Course.

Maragh again proved unstoppable aboard the 4-1 favourite Tizway, winning a widening three lengths clear of 9-2 second choice Flat Out, under Alex Solis, in the penultimate race of 11 on the card.

Tizway, a six-year-old, dark bay horse, completed 1,800 metres on the dirt track in one minute, 52.43 seconds, giving Maragh his 17th stakes victory for the year in North America.

"It was an ideal trip," said the 26-year-old Maragh. "I was always close to the pace where I wanted to be - not having my horse have too much to do. So it was pretty easy kind of trip."

Maragh fortified his status of being the most successful jockey from the Caribbean in stakes races this year, and has now partnered Tizway for all but one of the horse's seven career wins, including a victory in the US $500,000 Metropolitan Handicap in May at Belmont Park.

The victory was one of three on the card for Maragh. He now has 13 wins for the season at the track, where he is fourth in the jockeys' standings, and is one of three reinsmen earning more than US $1 million.

Shaun Bridgmohan, another Jamaican jockey, also landed one of the two co-featured stakes races on the card, the US $80,000 De La Rose Stakes, aboard outsider Trix in the City.

Keeping watch

Maragh raced Tizway close in third behind the pace being set by Friend Or Foe and Morning Line, keeping a watchful eye on the embattled pair for nearly three-quarters of the way.

Maragh said he was never worried about Tizway making the distance, a concern punters had about the animal before the race.

"I just trusted the horse that he'd get the distance," he said. "I just ride him the same way I've always ridden him, and having confidence in James Bond and his team to have the horse prepared to go a route of ground.

Maragh had warmed-up for the big race with a comfortable six-length victory on the 10-1 chance Currency Swap in the US $54,000 third race over 1,300m.

Later, he celebrated his victory in the big race, bringing the curtain down with a half-length victory on the 9-2 chance Bound by Humor in the US $48,000 seventh race over 1,400m.