US-based former champion jockey Emelio Rodriquez. - file

pennsylvania, cmc

Caribbean jockeys Emilio Rodriquez and Navin Mangalee scored victories in Philadelphia Park horse racing on Saturday afternoon.

Veteran Jamaican Rodriquez produced one of his trademark rousing finishes to capture the fifth race by a nose, while Mangalee won the eighth race.

In the US$17,000 fifth race over a mile, Rodriquez won with the five-year-old horse Preferred Risk after a stirring stretch duel.

Using the 10-1 shot to lead the 10-horse field, the 52-year-old Rodriquez was pressured for the lead as the field swung into the homestretch.

An intense battle ensued and after four horses rushed toward the eighth pole within a length of each other, Preferred Risk and the 5-1 bet Dandy Squall edged ahead for a duel.

Preferred Risk briefly lost the lead in mid-stretch but Rodriquez, a four-time Jamaica champion jockey, rallied his mount gamely to snatch victory at the winning post in a time of one minute 38.78 seconds.

Mangalee, a two-time Trinidad and Tobago champion apprentice, won the US$52,080 eighth race in a front-running effort with the 6-1 chance Star of Sahm.

The six-year-old mare was sent into an unchallenged lead by Mangalee and kept control to win by two lengths.

Star of Sahm clocked one minute 40.66 seconds under Mangalee, back-to-back champion apprentice in T&T in 1999 and 2000.