Hot apprentice jockey Rachaad Knights led all riders at the Downs last week with five wins from only nine mounts and vaulted himself into a tie for third in the standings. Not bad for a guy who only won 26 races in eight years in Barbados and learned how to ride on a donkey.
He certainly wasn’t riding any donkeys this week, even though one of his winners was 15-1. When you’re hot, you’re hot, and in jockeyland that’s a big deal. The hotter you are, the more live mounts you get, and Knights is getting some good ones. With speed.
He won the first race Monday forcing the pace from the inside aboard Lollipop Kid ($2.90) for trainer Shelley Brown and used the same style to win the seventh race aboard Sebadas ($3.10) for trainer Brent Hrymak. On Tuesday, Knights forced the pace from the outside to win the second race on It’s a Boy ($2.10) for trainer Bruce Sanderson, and won a rare two-horse match race using the inside speed of Runtoday ($2.40) in the fourth race for trainer Jared Brown.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
Jockey Rachaad Knights (right) who won five races this week at Assiniboia Downs rides Coal Boy during training Friday at the Downs.
Those winners should have been enough to alert bettors this guy knows how to win on the front end, but they weren’t. Knights fooled everyone in the first race Wednesday when he shot out of the gate aboard longshot C C’s Kitten ($31.60) and led the field on a merry chase to the winner’s circle for trainer Tom Gardipy, Jr.
Knights’ fifth win gave him an amazing 55 per cent win clip for the week, and improved his local record to 11-4-5 from 43 starts. He’s now tied for third in the jockey standings with proven veteran Damario Bynoe, who also has 11 victories. The only jockeys above Bynoe and Knights are former leading rider Prayven Badrie, who has 16 wins, and former three-time champion Antonio Whitehall (12), who recommended that Knights come here to ride. The 5-5, 113-pounder arrived in Manitoba on March 13.
“At first it was really cold,” said Knights, who had never seen snow before. “Different surroundings, change of atmosphere, so my body had to adjust. But Antonio told me it would be cold.”
Adjusting to a new country and the frigid weather was helped by the fact that Whitehall mentored him. “He’s showing me the ropes,” said Knights. “But I’ve got it now.” Which is a good thing, because both Knights and Whitehall are in a battle to catch Badrie at the top.
Knights has been exercising horses and riding for several top stables including Tom Gardipy, Jr. Jared Brown, Shelly Brown, Jamie Hartmann and Devon Gittens, among others. His biggest winner of the season so far is Brody’s Streak, who appears to have turned into a monster this year for Gardipy.
“I’m getting live mounts, thanks to my agent (Shane Ball) and the trainers that trust me with their horses,” said Knights. “Good horses make good jockeys. I just want to say thank you all to the owners and trainers for the opportunities.”
The major difference between racing in Barbados and racing in Manitoba is the weekly three-evenings-per-week schedule, which speeds up the learning curve for a new jockey.
“It’s nice because back home you race only every two weeks,” said Knights. “Here you race three days a week every week, so it’s very different. If you make a mistake on Monday you can correct it on Tuesday. And the tracks are different. My home racing is on turf and here we have dirt. There’s been a lot of adjusting to get it done.”
Knights grew up around the racetrack in Barbados, and naturally took to the track on a suggestion from his dad. He learned from the ground up, progressing from riding a donkey to grooming and helping out in the barn, to exercising horses and finally riding.
His opportunities to ride in Barbados were limited, which is in sharp contrast to what he is doing in Canada, putting on a show every evening for his fan club back home, which includes his mom and dad, uncles, brothers, cousins and friends.
Knights isn’t the only jockey or trainer with connections to Barbados and Assiniboia Downs who has put on a show recently. Local trainer Devon Gittens and former top ASD jockey Juan Crawford teamed up to blast a lightning bolt through the crowd when they won the eighth race at Woodbine last Friday at odds of 72-1.
The word was out on This Katz for Real when he made his first lifetime start at Woodbine on June 2, but he duelled and faded to last and everyone forgot about him in his next race. One thing we’ve learned about Gittens is that he’s one of those rare trainers who excels at getting a horse ready to win their first lifetime start, and if something goes haywire, he can adjust quickly. Just as Knights has.
The word is out on him too.
