CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — Two-year-old trotting colt Eilean Donon earned his second straight Gold Final victory with an impressive front end effort at Mohawk Racetrack on Monday evening.
The Angus Hall son and driver Chris Christoforou fired out of Post 5 and ticked off fractions of :27.4, :59 and 1:28.2 on their way to the 1:57.1 victory over a hard closing Grand Sovereign and Beardmore. The win was Eilean Donon’s first since the Sept. 1 Champlain Stakes at Mohawk and trainer Brad Maxwell attributed the youngster’s solid effort to a change from a blind bridle to a bridle with side rolls.
“He was much quieter this week; much easier to drive. It was probably two or three starts too late,” said Maxwell. “At the gate he usually relaxes, until a couple of starts ago. Then he started taking a pretty good hold. The equipment change helped quite a bit.”
The other alteration to the colt’s routine was the change from driver Tom Strauss to Christoforou, made by Eilean Donon’s owners Steve Stewart of Paris, KY, Joseph Taylor of Lexington, KY and Benjamin Taylor of Nicholasville, KY.
“Tom did a terrific job with the horse in training him with me; racing the horse he did a great job with the colt,” said Maxwell. “It was an owners’ decision to make a move. It was their choice to get Randy (Waples) or Chris (Christoforou) to drive the horse; the top two drivers on the racetrack.”
Those two changes convinced savvy Mohawk fans that Eilean Donon deserved top billing, in spite of finishing behind Cincinnati Kid in his elimination last week. Sent off as the favourite, Eilean Donon returned $4.70, $3.60 and $3.10 with his winning effort, while fifth choice Grand Sovereign paid $7.60 and $6.40 and sixth choice Beardmore returned $7.00. The exactor was worth $42.40 and the triactor paid $589.60.
Cincinnati Kid pressed the pace from the outside, but was unable to deliver a finishing kick and wound up fifth in the 10 horse field.
The freshman trotting colts make their last regular season Gold Series stop at Western Fair Raceway Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 before the top 10 point earners return to Mohawk for the $300,000 Super Final on Nov. 8.
Ontario Sires Stakes action continues at Mohawk Racetrack on Monday, Oct. 6 with a $130,000 Gold Final for the three-year-old trotting colts.