Sterling Choice and Control Rocks won the two $90,000 Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Gold Series events for 3-year-old pacing colts on Saturday (May 24) at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Both winners set career-best miles and had first-time drivers.
In the first division (race 6), roan pacer Sterling Choice, bred by Winbak Farm, led most of the way, scoring a 1:50.4 victory for owner/trainer Blake MacIntosh and his ownership partners Ozzie and Tammy Lynn MacKay, who purchased Sterling Choice for $15,000 at the 2023 Standardbred Horse Sales Company yearling auction in Harrisburg, PA.
Billy Davis, Jr. drove the son of Betterthancheddar out of Platinum Choice for the first time, leading the field through fractions of :27.1, :56.3 and 1:24.1. Sterling Choice scored a 2½ length win over Set Shot. Favourite Aquinas Hanover was third and Fubar Bunday and Blue Bar picked up the final two cheques, respectively.
Bettors sent Sterling Choice off at 5-2.
“He’s just so handy off the gate,” Davis, Jr. said to Woodbine Mohawk Park’s Chad Rozema. “He can get away so quickly and then he’s got great manners and you just can relax and get a nice breather in the middle of the mile.”
It was the first win of 2025 for Sterling Choice in three starts. He now sports a lifetime record of 3-4-4 in 14 starts and earnings of $362,380.
MacIntosh said Sterling would likely contest the Somebeachsomewhere Stakes at Woodbine Mohawk Park next Saturday (May 31) before deciding whether to enter the pacer in the $1 million Pepsi North America Cup.
“He’s matured a lot, filled out a lot and he looks great,” MacIntosh said. “He’s a horse sort of like Rodney Dangerfield. He doesn’t get any respect. Every driver picks off him every week, so hopefully Billy sticks with him.”
In the second division, Control Rocks and first-time driver Tyler Borth scored a 17-1 upset in a division featuring 1-9 favourite Crack Shot, who finished fourth.
Control Rocks, a gelded son of Control The Moment out of Katie Rocks that was bred by Ben Mudry of Toronto and is owned and trained by Jack Darling, posted a 1:50.1 lifetime best in just his fifth lifetime start.
The pacer battled early with Stonebridge Wizard, with Control Rocks taking control up the backstretch and holding off the field from there to record a 1¾ length victory.
“I didn’t really know much about [Control Rocks] at all,” Borth told Woodbine Mohawk Park’s Chad Rozema. “I thought he raced pretty good last week… I didn’t think there was a ton of inside speed, and he felt like a big, strong horse in the post parade, so I elected to get him out of there.
“I didn’t know he was that kind of horse, but he was amazing.”
Tip Of Time was second, Fifth And Five was third and Mood Control finished just behind Crack Shot in fifth.
It was Control Rocks’ second win in four 2025 starts. He is now 2-1-1 lifetime. He made just one start in 2024.
“It was kind of a mystery,” Darling said of Control Rocks’ 2-year-old season. “He qualified decently, and then his next start, he was terrible. Something went wrong. He got a little bit sick, and I just quit with him.”
Darling, who purchased Control Rocks for $33,000 at the 2023 London Classic Yearling Sale, said the gelding will mostly race in the Ontario Sires Stakes program this year.