Bridgmohan wins Allen LaCombe Memorial Stakes
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CMC) — Top flight Jamaican jockey Shaun Bridgmohan used a confident ride aboard the favourite Tizaqueena to win the Allen LaCombe Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds racetrack on Saturday afternoon.
Tizaqueena, a 3-to-5 favourite, won the US$60,000 mile and sixteenth event by three quarters of a length for trainer Michael Stidham and owner Darley Stable.
The five-year-old mare won ahead of the 19-1 bet No Use and clocked one minute, 45.99 seconds while giving Bridgmohan, the leading rider here, his third added-money win so far this year.
Bridgmohan secured another win on the card to climb to 58 wins and leads the jockeys’ table by three over James Graham, who went winless on Saturday.
Tizaqueena was held up behind the leaders early while the 44-1 outsider More of the Best set the pace.
No Use, ridden by Miguel Mena, grabbed the lead from the fading More of the Best — as the eight-horse field left the backstretch.
No Use entered the last two furlongs in front but could not repel Tizaqueena’s strong homestretch challenge and lost out after a brave fight as Bridgmohan logged what he described as an easy victory.
“This was the first time I’ve been on her and she made my job easy,” Bridgmohan said.
“She’s so classy. All I had to do was be a good passenger,” added the 30-year-old Jamaican, who had won the Dixie Poker Ace Stakes and the Louisiana Stakes here last month.
The 6-1 chance Final Refrain, ridden by Barbadian Patrick Husbands, was fourth.
The win was Tizaqueena’s sixth in 12 starts and her triumphs include the Churchill’s Grade II Distaff Turf Mile on Kentucky Derby Day last year.