Despite the outright win by the Carl Anderson-bred, owned, and trained Emperorofthecats in the $1.14-million Charles Hussey OD Trophy main feature race, Hall of Fame trainer Richard Azan stole the show by saddling his 700th career win.

Azan, who had started his training career in 1994, achieved his milestone in the $1.02-million Royal Lancaster Trophy with three-year-old bay colt Whisky.

Ridden by Dane Dawkins, Whisky beat rivals by 2 1/4 lengths in the Restricted Allowance call for native-bred three-year-olds (non-winners of two) and upward (maidens) over six furlongs (1,200 m).

Sarge in Charge (Andre Powell) finished in second place and Amad Ali (Richard Henry) finished in third place. The final time was 1:16.1.

It was the second winner on the day for leading rider Dawkins, who had earlier booted home Keturah for trainer Patrick Lynch in the seventh race.

Also with two winners was champion jockey Anthony Thomas, who won aboard Storm Valley in the opening of nine races for owner and trainer Joseph Thomas and aboard Power in the fifth race for many-time champion trainer Philip Feanny.

Dawkins continues to lead the jockeys’ race with 96 winners, four wins ahead of Thomas on 92 winners with four race days to go in the year.

Meanwhile, bred by Emperor Hall out of the Law Of The Sea mare Laws Of The Cat, Emperorofthecats, who was always in the ding-dong battle from the start of the race, won by a length in the three-year-old and upward Restricted Overnight Allowance contest over five furlongs (1,000m) straight.

The Good Witch (Shavon Townsend) finished in second place, just a neck ahead of Baton Rouge (Phillip Parchment) in third place. The final time for the race was a decent 59.0 seconds.

Racing continues on the Christmas weekend on Saturday and again on Monday and Tuesday.