With just four wins separating them and one race day to go, agent of reigning champion jockey Anthony Thomas, Coorie Grant, says the race for this year’s title is not over until the final race on Saturday at Caymanas Park.

Thomas is currently on 96 wins, four behind Dane Dawkins who leads the jockey’s championship.

Tevin Foster is a distance third in the standings with 56 winners, followed Ryan Lewis (49), veteran Shane Ellis (38), Dick Cardenas (37), Robert Halladean (34), Omar Walker (30), Roger Hewitt (28), and Christopher Mamdeen (27) to round off the top 10.

Thomas, who is affectionately called “St Mary”, has secured nine rides on Saturday’s 10-race card compared to Dawkins’ eight.

“To tell you the truth, Dawkins is in the driver seat, but we have a never-say-die attitude and we live for these moments in sports and it is a nice look for racing, but we are going to fight to the end,” said Grant.

“We are on some very good rides this Saturday, but some times luck has to go with the good rides because in racing there are many ways to lose a race and so we are just keeping our fingers crossed that everything will workout for us,” Grant stated.

He added: “My jockey is always a very confident person because his confidence level is always high, but some unfortunate incidents took place over the Christmas carnival, but we have brushed that aside and we are now ready for Saturday.”

Grant also had high praise for Dawkins, who was winning a 100 races in a calendar year for the first time in his career. “I want to welcome Dawkins to the 100 club because I am happy for him. He is a humble individual and I am just hoping that he can continue doing the work that he has been doing,” Grant said.

Thomas, who has ridden over 500 winners at Caymanas Park since he began riding in 2017, won 113 last year compared to his current total of 96, so far this season, but Grant stated that he is still happy with that total.

“To get near to a 100 winners, it is always good to do that because there are just over 800 races that are run per year at Caymanas Park and so I would consider it to be a very good season for us,” he said.

“We always try to come out and do our best and to please our owners, trainers, grooms and the fans and so that is the most important thing for us throughout the year,” Grant added.

— Robert Bailey