Cham­pi­on jock­ey Dil­lon Khelawan main­tained his stran­gle­hold on the lo­cal rac­ing scene when he won three of the six races which were con­test­ed at San­ta Rosa Park, Ari­ma on Fri­day (ob­served as Labour Day).

The top rid­er was made the 3-5 favourite to win the open­ing event at San­ta Rosa Park aboard Mona Lisa. The lead­ing rid­er put Mona Lisa at the front and on­ly lost in the fi­nal 20 me­tres of the race to the 4-1 shot Twit­ter King.

When asked about Mona Lisa, Khelawan said, "He ran a brave race. He trav­elled well for the ear­ly part of the race and I thought I had it at the cor­ner but Twit­ter King came with a sus­tained run to snatch it close to the line."

Khelawan came back in the sec­ond event to land his first win­ner on the six-race card, when he rode Bour­bon Blitz to vic­to­ry. That was al­so the first win­ner for cham­pi­on train­er John O'Brien.

Bour­bon Blitz was in­stalled as the 4-5 favourite to turn in his maid­en cer­tifi­cate. The well-backed favourite, who made it look easy, as he quick­ened away from his ri­vals in the sec­ond event to win eased down by 1 1/4 lengths.

Khelawan said, "She broke well and I made all the run­ning. She was trav­el­ling best of all com­ing to the cor­ner and ran on well to the line. She will con­tin­ue to im­prove."

The cham­pi­on jock­ey had more to come and teamed up with three-year-old Syd­ney in the next event. The three-year-old, an­oth­er from the O'Brien barn, made it look great with an im­pres­sive vic­to­ry in the third event. She pulled well clear of Red Alert to win by 7 1/2 lengths. Syd­ney will now go for the sec­ond jew­el of lo­cal rac­ing Triple Crown the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic.

This is what Khelawan said af­ter the suc­cess, "She trav­elled strong­ly through­out the race and quick­ened up well when asked to go win her race. She will now be aimed at the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic."

There was bet­ter to come on the card with the high­ly-re­gard­ed So­ca Ec­sta­cy whose per­for­mance was im­pres­sive. She made vir­tu­al­ly all the run­ning in the fourth event and ham­mered a good field by 16 1/4 lengths. Clear­ly, she was well thought of and has con­tin­ued to im­prove. Her next man­date will be tak­ing on the "King" and un­beat­en three-year-old Head­lin­er in the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic.

Khelawan said, "She has shown re­mark­able im­prove­ment and will go well in the Sec­ond Clas­sic."

Rac­ing takes a break and re­turns on Au­gust 1 (Eman­ci­pa­tion Day) for the sec­ond jew­el of lo­cal rac­ing's Triple Crown, the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic over 1,900 me­tres on the turf course when Khelawan will ride the un­beat­en colt Head­lin­er.