Following reports that Jamaican riding sensation Rajiv Maragh is expressing an interest in coming home for a local race meet, Caymanas Track Limited (CTL) director Andrew Azar said it would be a major plus having the USA based jockey on the Guineas weekend classic card.

And Maragh has underscored his intentions, saying: “Give me Princess Popstar to ride and I will come for free. Seriously though I am hoping the logistics can be worked out where I can come back to my homeland and do something that I really enjoy.”

Azar said having a jockey the calibre of Maragh riding on what he said would be “a carnival Guineas weekend” would be something CTL would be willing to entertain.

“We would love to have Rajiv on the Guineas racing card,” Azar said. “It would be nice if something could be worked out, as that definitely would add to our plans and would also be an added bonus for racing fans.”

The official racing calendar has the Jamaica 1,000 Guineas for Saturday, April 5 and the 2,000 Guineas for Saturday April 12. However, Azar disclosed that CTL ideally wants both classics to run on the same weekend (Saturday and Sunday), creating what he called a carnival atmosphere for the ages.

When told of CTL’s plans, Maragh who currently rides at Aqueduct, New York, said he would be looking keenly at his schedule to see if he could make it for the Guineas Classics or even the Jamaica Derby.

“As I have consistently maintained I would love to ride in Jamaica,” he said. “If something can be worked out like what they did in Trinidad last September where the Derby didn’t conflict with my riding schedule here in the USA, then of course, I would be interested.”

Maragh rode the Jamaican bred Prince Zeshan to a third place finish in the Trinidad Derby, a race which was won by another local bred horse -the Gary Subratie trained Big Man In Town under top US jockey Javier Castellano.

Maragh, who has won over 1,600 races internationally, including five Breeder’s Cups and the Arkansas Derby, is currently fifth in the jockeys’ standing at Aqueduct.

“It would certainly be a lot of fun…riding in Jamaica,” Maragh added.