HAL­LAN­DALE BEACH – Ja­maican jock­ey Shaun Bridg­mo­han earned suc­cess in the US$75 000 Sun­shine Turf Stakes when he took 7-1 choice Roar­ing For­ties gate-to-wire to win the fea­ture at Gulf­stream Park in Flori­da, USA on Sat­ur­day.

The pair out-paced favourite Max K.O at the break to set­tle in front for the mile and six­teenth trip, be­fore hold­ing off the fast-fin­ish­ing 3-1 bet Hot Blood­ed to win by half-length in a time of one minute, 40.57 sec­onds.

For the sev­en-year-old chest­nut geld­ing, the vic­to­ry was his first added-mon­ey suc­cess, af­ter mak­ing his 23 pre­vi­ous starts all at Wood­bine race­track in Toron­to, Cana­da.

The 43-year-old Bridg­mo­han, who is al­so based at Wood­bine, broke Roar­ing For­ties from the out­side post and hus­tled him to the front to chis­el out frac­tions of 23.10 sec­onds for the quar­ter mile and 47.69 for the half.

Max K.O, trained by Bar­ba­di­an train­er Saffie Joseph Jr, chased from sec­ond while Hot Blood­ed and Lure Him In tracked from the mid­dle of the six-horse field.

Com­ing off the fi­nal turn, Max K.O made his move on the out­side, pulling up next to Roar­ing For­ties to spark a du­el at the top of the lane.

How­ev­er, Roar­ing For­ties ac­cel­er­at­ed along the rails to re-es­tab­lish his two length on the field as Max K.O fad­ed.

Ju­nior Al­vara­do then brought Hot Blood­ed with a charg­ing run down the mid­dle of the track but just missed out.

CMC