The 2022 champion, Dane Dawkins had one of his best days of his storied career, when he rode the first of five winners on the day with The General (3-1) scoring in the opening event, run at seven and a half furlongs.
Saddled by Gary Subratie, for the first of a three-timer for the stable, The General was the best by three lengths.
It was an immediate return to winners’ enclosure as forty minutes later, in the second event, a Restricted Stakes over the same distance of the first. In fact, Subratie declared the first two to finish with the 2000 Guineas winner of 2025, Sensational Soul (9-5) beating 24-1 shot Thousand Treasures (USA) by nearly four lengths for Dawkins to secure his second.
In race three, ridden by apprentice Emelio McClean, four-year-old maiden filly, Baby Grey (1-2) changed this status with a 17-length romp for trainer Oral Chin’s second success from ten starts since New Year’s Day. The race attracted only seven starters for the seven and a half furlongs gallop.
This proved to be only just a break from the Dawkins showcase with race four going to Feeling Free (9-2) for his riding triple. The four-year-old colt out-finished 3-5 favourite Summer Palace by a length and a half over the five furlongs round course. Peter-John Parsard opened his seasonal account, with this the first of two on the day from the 12 declarations of the stable this year.
For Dawkins’ fourth and Parsard’s closing leg of his stable double, Lucy On The Go (2-1) was all out scoring by a neck of the five-furlongs straight of race five.
Over the same distance in race six, Restoration (2-1), ridden by claimer Jaheim Anderson, bested 14 rivals. Saddled by Michael Caine Jnr, who doubles as the promoter’s race day previewer, Restoration was winning for the third time since being claimed for this stable in February of 2025 and won by a length and a half.
Winner of eight of its last ten races for sundry trainers dating back to December 2024, Tigray Express (1-2), from the camp of Adrian Prince, was half a length in front of seven rivals at the end of race seven for the opener of a Tevin Foster riding double.
Meanwhile, trained by Anthony Nunes, Canadian-bred even money favourite, Miss Grove (1-1), was ridden to a one-length victory margin by two-time champion Raddesh Roman over the six furlongs of race eight.
The 2026 renewal of the Eight Thirty Sprint, a traditional event going back four decades and restricted to three-year-old maiden fillies, was staged as the ninth event in support of the feature. The trainer/jockey partnership of Subratie and Dawkins enjoyed visit numbers three and five respectively to the hallowed space of the winners’ enclosure with Lexi Lou (7-5) always in control of the five-furlong straight gallop.
Featured on the programme of ten events was another renewal of the George HoSang Trophy, staged in honour of the legendary reinsman who won titles locally and in Canada. Apprentice Garvin Harris got the benefit of replacing Jaheim Anderson, who was injured, having fallen from an earlier mount, and rode Mack And Rome (3-1), saddled by Saqlain Roman, to a near four-length triumph over the five-furlong straight course.
