De­spite the peren­ni­al chal­lenges mas­quer­aders face dur­ing the Great­est Show on Earth, one thing is for sure—they like to “Pardy.”

Machel Mon­tano’s hit was the clear fron­trun­ner for the Road March ti­tle, with Bun­ji Gar­lin’s Car­ry It trail­ing be­hind yes­ter­day, ac­cord­ing to un­of­fi­cial counts.

Al­though he ac­knowl­edged the tough com­pe­ti­tion, recog­nis­ing Car­ry It as a strong con­tender, Mon­tano told re­porters at The Car­ni­val Oa­sis that he was “very ea­ger, very hope­ful, very cau­tious” about what seemed to be an­oth­er vic­to­ry.