With just over seven months to go until the 2024 racing season finishes, all eyes will be set on the race for the jockey’s championship as the competition intensified between the two main protagonists, leader Tevin Foster and Raddesh Roman.

Entering last Saturday’s (May 11, 2024) race meet, Foster led Roman by 11 winners with a 49-38 advantage.

The ‘Sneaky Fox’, as Roman is popularly called in the racing circle, kept the pressure on Foster when he booted home another five winners on the 10-race programme, cutting the deficit to eight. Foster rode two winners on the day.

Roman opened the programme aboard Kingswood for trainer Saqlain Roman over 7 furlongs. He then won the next event aboard the Ryan Darby-conditioned Crimson, also at 7 furlongs.

Roman’s third winner came in the sixth race when he guided Traveller’s Lodge for trainer Christopher Pearson. His fourth was aboard Bold Move, trained by Gary Subratie, in the eighth race over the straight course at five furlongs.

The cap for Roman was an 11-1 upset win aboard Justin Biden in the second running of the $1.25-million Yvonne Mattis Cup feature over nine furlongs (1,800m). Justin Biden picked up the lead at the four-furlong (800-metre) marker and never gave up in a two-and-quarter-length win in the Overnight Allowance contest for three-year-olds and older.

Owned by Carlton Granston and trained by Lawrence Freemantle,
Justin Biden completed the distance in 1:54.2 (24.3 x 49.0 x 1:14.0 x 1:40.0).

Foster’s two winners in Flybluejet in the fourth race for trainer Philip Feanny, and Teflon Don for trainer Jason DaCosta in the fifth race, the Mother’s Day Special Trophy

“It is an amazing feeling riding five winners in one day. I just want to give The Almighty thanks and the connections of the horses as they were all prepared well for the races,” Roman told the Jamaica Observer’s The Supreme Racing Guide.

“Well, I will just continue to put in the hard work and as I said, as long as I get the good rides, I know I have the ability to deliver. It is just to continue doing what I can do. Time will tell as we have a long way to go,” Roman added.