Husbands captures Elgin Stakes at Woodbine

TORONTO, Canada (CMC):

Barbadian Patrick Husbands kept up his strong added-money form at Woodbine when he made all the running aboard 3-2 choice Kingsport to win the Elgin Stakes here Wednesday night.

Going a mile and sixteenth for the three-year-old and upward colts and gelding, Husbands got the Sid Attard-trained six-year-old dark bay to the wire by 11/2 lengths in a time of one minute, 47:08 seconds.

Kingsport got the better of 7-2 bet Thor's Rocket in a short duel at the start, to post lazy fractions of 28:32 seconds for the quarter and 53:63 for the half.

When Alan Garcia quickened Thor's Rocket coming off the final turn, Husbands responded in kind, and Kingsport had no equal in the stretch run.

"He's the type of horse that's always vice versa - he likes to go long and he likes to go short- but the older he gets, he likes to run at horses," Husbands said afterwards.

"Today (Wednesday), he had everything his way and when I got by the half-mile, I set him down and I knew it would take a good horse to beat him from there. I had everything my way and he was just galloping."

There was disappointment for Husbands in the OLG Kenora Stakes, however, when he just missed out aboard pacesetter Circle of Friends as favourite Pink Floyd snatched the six-furlong sprint by a neck.