Following the blitz of winners by jockey Anthony Thomas over the last four weeks which saw him overtake long-time leader in the race for the jockey’s title Dane Nelson, the latter has seemingly found his form and is making a statement of intent.

That statement of intent manifested itself on the Saturday (October 17) 10-race programme at Caymanas Park when Nelson, known affectionately by his legion of supporters as the “Warrior Chief”, showed that he was still in the hunt for top honours.

Nelson rode a four-timer, but not to be outdone, Thomas had two winners giving the Warrior Chief a two-win advantage on the day.

Nelson started the day at 15 wins behind Thomas, and is now 13 behind.

Thomas took over the lead from Nelson after the St Leger weekend of racing on September 26 and 27 when he rode eight winners over the two days to lead the race by seven wins.

Thomas continued afterwards to find the winners’ enclosure with alarming frequency while Nelson had no answers, going winless in three race days and managing only one winner in four race meets.

However, Nelson’s four-timer signalled that the race is not yet over as he still got more ammunition to fire.

Nelson on Saturday won aboard General Mubaraak for trainer Donovan Plummer, Truly Amazing and Chief of State for trainer Spencer Chung and Santorini for trainer Anthony Nunes.

Thomas’s two winners were Smokey Topaz for trainer Anthony Subratie and Secret Traveller for trainer Wayne DaCosta.

The order of the Saturday wins saw Thomas win two races before Nelson replied with four-consecutive wins.

The two high-powered stables now operating at the park, that of champion trainer Anthony Nunes and former champion Wayne DaCosta, are behind Nelson and Thomas respectively.

Despite this attachment to the top stables, both Thomas and Nelson are still able to get winning rides from other trainers.

Based on the tabulation of the promoting company’s racing office in terms of stakes earned, Thomas is also the leader, over $4 million ahead of Nelson.

Nowhere near in the race for the jockeys’ title is reigning champion Christopher Mamdeen.

Mamdeen as an apprentice last year ignited the racing scene and was all the rage with winner coming after winner. Then suddenly with his claiming weight, commonly referred to as the “bug” removed, Mamdeen seems to have lost his way. At present he is not even on the top 10 list of riders.

The leading apprentice on that list is Oshane Nugent, who occupies fourth place with 23 wins to date.

Leading Jockeys – Wins

45 Racedays – 447 Races up to 17/10/2020 inclusive

Name 1st 2nd 3rd Mounts Stakes

1 THOMAS, ANTHONY 65 42 36 270 $38,530,550

2 NELSON, DANE 52 41 29 213 $34,279,740

3 WALKER, OMAR 36 25 28 183 $23,764,690

4 NUGENT, OSHANE 23 17 23 175 $13,931,350

5 HALLEDEEN, ROBERT 21 17 13 125 $16,665,200

6 DAWKINS, DANE 19 22 24 182 $15,314,325

7 ROMAN, RADDESH 18 25 20 167 $13,045,850

8 CARDENAS, DICK 18 20 16 119 $12,282,010

9 LEWIS, REYAN 17 22 11 127 $11,850,690

10 ELLIS, SHANE 16 10 11 84 $9,193,250