Jamaican jockey Rajiv Maragh picked up his first stakes triumph of the 2009 horse racing season Sunday when he steered the favourite Justwhistledixie to victory in the Ruthless Stakes at Aqueduct.

A hot 2-to-5 favourite in a six-horse field, Justwhistledixie won the US$70,795 sprint for three-year-old fillies by 3-¹/² lengths for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.

The winning time for the six-furlong run was one minute 10.81 seconds.

Home stretch

Owned by West Point Thorough-breds and Lakland Farm, the filly overtook longshot Indian Rush, who had gone the first quarter in 22.41 and the half in 46.05 and won easily.

Maragh stalked the front-running Indian Rush, a 25-1 outsider with Jamaican jockey Winston Thompson aboard, until they straightened for the home stretch.

Indian Rush faded in the upper-stretch and Justwhistledixie quickened under a hand-ride from Maragh and won easily.

"The trip was really pretty simple. I was on the big favourite, she had a good post, and she has natural speed," Maragh said after the win.

"The other horse (Indian Rush) rushed up to take the lead and that gave me the opportunity to use her as a target. Once she made the lead, the race was basically over. I put away the stick at the 16th pole, but she started looking at something, so I tapped her once," said Maragh, following his third win of the new season.

Jamaican wins

Maragh, who finished joint champion - on 26 wins with Alan Garcia - at the Aqueduct Fall Meet that ended on December 31, is currently joint third in the new season behind Ramon Dominguez (8) and Eddie Castro (4).

There were other Jamaican wins Sunday at tracks across the United States.

Shaun Bridgmohan had a victory at Fair Grounds, while at Tampa Bay Downs, trainer, Kirk Ziadie and jockey, Andrew Ramgeet picked up wins.

At Fair Grounds in New Orleans, Bridgmohan steered the favourite, Coach Gravy, to victory in the US$42,000 seventh race, for his 18th win of the season.

Coach Gravy (2-1) won by a neck and covered the one-mile trip in 1:41.82.

Ziadie, the leading trainer at Tampa Bay Downs in Florida, secured his eighth win of the season when Soy Latino won the US$17,000 eighth race over 6-¹/² furlongs. Soy Latino won by 1-³/⁴ lengths in 1:17.64.

The US$17,900 ninth race went to the seven-year-old mare, Megawattie with Ramgeet up. Megawattie, a 13-2 bet, finished fast and won the five-furlong sprint on turf in 57.42 seconds under Ramgeet, who was scoring his sixth win of the current season.