ED­MON­TON – Bar­ba­di­an jock­ey Ri­co Wal­cott rekin­dled mem­o­ries of his dom­i­nant North­land Park days when he snatched five races, in­clud­ing the fea­ture CAN$40 000 Red Tail Land­ing Hand­i­cap, on the nine-race card at Cen­tu­ry Mile in Cana­da Fri­day.

The 29-year-old, in­jured last month in a rac­ing in­ci­dent here, snatched vic­to­ries in race three with favourite Raiden, in race four with an­oth­er favourite Sen­same be­fore al­so tak­ing race five with pun­ters choice Pen­ny a Point.

Wal­cott then paired with favourite Sun­burst to win the Red Tail in race eight be­fore al­so cap­tur­ing the day’s fi­nal event aboard 4-1 chance Bear Fab­u­lous Son.

A mul­ti­ple times cham­pi­on at the now de­funct North­lands al­so here in Ed­mon­ton, Wal­cott’s lat­est suc­cess pro­pelled him to 14 wins from 42 rides for the new sea­son, five clear of Rigo Sarmien­to with Bar­ba­di­an An­to­nio White­hall third on eight wins from 46 out­ings.

In his first full sea­son at Cen­tu­ry Mile af­ter a brain op­er­a­tion led to a trun­cat­ed cam­paign last year, Wal­cott’s sea­son be­gan in less than stel­lar fash­ion when a start­ing gate in­ci­dent on the open­ing day left him side­lined.

With Fri­day’s fire­works, how­ev­er, Wal­cott showed lit­tle ef­fects from that ac­ci­dent, in­stalling him­self as the favourite to win his maid­en Cen­tu­ry ti­tle.

He opened his ac­count over a mile when he car­ried the five-year-old chest­nut geld­ing Raiden to a hand­some 2-1/2 length vic­to­ry over the three-year-olds and up­ward.

Wal­cott pressed the pace from along the rails as Awe­some Hit and Small Town Dude du­elled for the lead through the first quar­ter run in 24.74 sec­onds.

Raiden burst to the front at the five-six­teenth pole with Bar­ley Boy in pur­suit but drew off hand­i­ly in the lane to reach the wire com­fort­ably.

Wal­cott dou­bled his tal­ly in a six fur­long sprint when he made all the run­ning aboard the four-year-old dark bay fil­ly Sesame, to crush the three-year-old and up­ward fil­lies and mares by six lengths.

And this third straight win came in a 6-1/2 fur­long event al­so for the three-year-old and up­ward fil­lies and mares when he brought the five-year-old chest­nut mare Pen­ny a Point with a fly­ing late run to win by a length.

Fit For Roy­al­ty, with White­hall in the sad­dle, post­ed the ear­ly splits be­fore Wal­cott came from off the pace with Pen­ny a Point to col­lar his ri­vals.

A gate-to-wire ef­fort then hand­ed Wal­cott his fourth taste of vic­to­ry as he guid­ed four-year-old chest­nut fil­ly Sun­burst to a dom­i­nant 1-? length win over the three-year-olds and up­ward fil­lies and mares in the fea­ture race.

Wal­cott kept Sun­burst in check through the ear­ly stages be­fore mak­ing his move at the quar­ter pole and hold­ing off Broad­way Bon­nie to reach the wire first.

The ex­pe­ri­enced reins­man capped off a su­perb day in the sad­dle when he brought the 10-year-old roan geld­ing Bear Fab­u­lous Son with a sharp late run to beat the three-year-olds and up­ward by a nose over a mile. CMC