With a large and enthusiastic crowd of Ontario Sires Stakes fans welcoming each Champion back to the winner’s circle, the 2015 Grassroots season came to a close at Mohawk Racetrack on Saturday evening.
The curtain went up on the $400,000 Grassroots Championship in the first race, and Semi-Final winner Muscles For Life delivered his third straight victory to earn the two-year-old trotting colt crown. With Guelph, ON resident Doug McNair in the race bike Muscles For Life got away third from Post 8 and then led the parade of colts up the outer lane before sprinting home to a 1:57.2 victory. Dynamic Edge trailed Muscles For Life up the outer lane into second, while fan favourite Georgies Pockets settled for third.
Gregg McNair of Guelph trains the son of Muscle Mass and Serenity Girl for Jarold Hawks of Jeddo, MI, who has purchased two Ontario Sired yearlings each fall for the last five or six years, sending them to McNair in the spring of their two-year-old season.
“We bought him in Lexington and we broke him in Michigan, took him to Florida, had him down there for the winter and then I turned him over to Gregg,” said Hawks, who acquired the colt for $35,000 from the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale. “He looked like the nicest colt. I have a filly trotter that we trained, Cadillac Sally, and she was really nice but he looked like he had a little more ability than she had.”
In six freshman starts Muscles For Life proved Hawks right, tallying three wins and one second for earnings of $49,400. The trotter will once again spend the winter in Florida with Hawks before returning to McNair’s barn in time for his three-year-old Ontario Sires Stakes campaign.
“It’s a fun business,” said the hands-on owner, who was standing in a Grassroots Championship winner’s circle for the second straight year. In 2014 Second Sister won the freshman trotting filly title for Hawks and the McNairs.
Campbellville, ON resident Riina Rekila guided Jangone to this year’s freshman trotting filly title, using a :27.1 final quarter to reel in the leaders and post the 1:56.3 victory. Tough Affair and Semi-Final winner Myretirementticket were one and three-quarter lengths back in second and third, while fan favourite Magical Steph settled for fourth.
Bred and owned by Rekila and Esa Lahtinen’s Overseas Farms Ltd., Jangone was a two-time winner during the Grassroots regular season, triumphing in the first and last events.
“First of the year I let her leave and then she went nuts,” said Rekila, who trains and drives the filly. “She was just leaving, and then I changed my tactics to coming from behind and that really worked with her.”
Jangone, by Overseas Farms’ stallion Johnny William and mare Panderosa F, wrapped up her freshman campaign with a record of four wins, one second, one third and earnings of $54,140 from nine starts.
Semi-Final winner Mayhem Seelster posted her fifth win of the season in the two-year-old pacing filly Championship. The Mach Three filly and driver Jack Moiseyev circled out three-wide at the three-quarter pole and fired down the stretch to a one-quarter length victory over division point leader Sports Expert and pacesetter Southwind Shania.
“Tonight around that last turn she was just chomping at the bit,” said Moffat, ON resident Moiseyev, who engineered the win for trainer Tony O’Sullivan of Puslinch, ON and owner Domenic Chiaravalle of Hamilton, ON. “I thought she was going to win a little easier, but there were some nice fillies in there, she had to race for it.”
Never worse than second in seven starts, Mayhem Seelster wraps up her freshman OSS campaign with earnings of $68,500, a surplus of $13,500 over her purchase price from the 2014 Forest City Yearling Sale.
Trevor Henry guided Semi-Final winner Duh Bubbees to a1:55.2 triumph in the three-year-old trotting colt and gelding Championship. The Arthur, ON resident engineered the two length win — over Parkhill Lancelot and In Secret — for Jamie and Chris Wilson of Huron Park, ON.
“He was better tonight than he has been ever,” said trainer Jamie Wilson, who also bred the son of Up Front Ben and Nothing To Justify. “I just kind of worked around with him a little bit this week, did a bit of work behind on him, and he (Trevor) said tonight he was really good.”
The gelding will be back at Mohawk Racetrack on Monday evening in a Gold Series division — his second run at the Gold level colts — starting from Post 6 in the evening’s first race.
Driver Jody Jamieson of Moffat, ON scored the first of two Grassroots Championship victories with three-year-old pacing filly Dublin Rose. After trailing division point leader Stonebridge Quest through fractions of :26.2, :55.1 and 1:24.3,Jamieson was able to find racing room in the stretch and Dublin Rose hit the wire one-quarter length the best in 1:52.2. Ainsleynoelle finished second and Stonebridge Quest was third.
“That’s the horse I wanted to follow. It worked out. I think she can race any way, but I think getting a trip she’s probably a little bit better,” said trainer Dave Menary of Cambridge, ON, who welcomed Dublin Rose into his barn in late August when she was acquired by Jerry Clark of Finksburg, MD.
“(Former trainer) Allen Tomlinson did a really good job with the mare and I just did my best to try to not screw it up,” Menary added.
Jamieson’s second victory came one race later with two-year-old pacing colt St Lads Moonwalk, the only regular season point leader to earn a Championship title. After sitting on the rail behind pacesetter Kokanee Seelster through fractions of :26.2, :55.3 and 1:24.3, Jamieson once again had to weave his way around horses to give St Lads Moonwalk a path to the finish. Once he reached open space the Mach Three son blasted under the wire a one length winner in 1:53.2. Azul Pool finished second and Bingo Ingo was third.
“Somehow Jody has a way of sneaking through there, he does it time and time again,” said owner and trainer Jack Darling.
“He’s such a game horse. He’s got a lot of try to him, just the kind you hope for,” added the Cambridge resident, who had to solve a couple of minor issues for the colt between a lacklustre fifth-place finish in his Semi-Final and Saturday’s Championship. “Every time you go you know he’s going to give a big effort.”
Three-year-old trotting filly Meadow Seelster was sent off as the heaviest favourite of the eight Championships and delivered the largest margin of victory, besting Oh My Magic and Judy The Beauty by four and one-quarter lengths in 1:56.
Like Duh Bubbees, Meadow Seelster and driver Sylvain Filion of Milton will take one final run at the Gold Series horses, returning to Mohawk on Tuesday with Post 2 in the seventh race.
“I’ll give her tomorrow in the paddock and jog her a little Monday and race her Tuesday; she loves her job,” said trainer Bill Budd of Waterdown, ON, who conditions the Holiday Road daughter for Bill Dixon of Caledon, ON.
The final Grassroots title was bestowed upon Artful Way, who came up with a big trip when it counted for driver Paul MacDonell of Guelph and trainer-owner-breeder Bob McIntosh of Windsor, ON. Starting from Post 2 the Artistic Fella gelding stepped to the outside heading for the halfway marker and then reeled in pacesetter Make Some Luck in the stretch to score a one-half length win in 1:51.1. Fan favourite Make Some Luck settled for second while His Boy Elroy closed hard for third.
“I didn’t really know what to expect from him,” said MacDonell, who picked up the drive when Milton resident Randy Waples opted for McIntosh’s other colt, Thinkofagameplan. ” He felt like a really nice horse on the track when I paraded him, so I got away fourth and then I looked at the horse that was third and it didn’t look like he would probably move first over so I thought, �Well, we can’t stay in fourth and win the race’, so I just moved him easily, didn’t really pressure him too much until the last eighth of a mile.
“Some of them can’t take air like that,” added the veteran reinsman. “Bob’s horses, I find it doesn’t seem to bother them, they seem to be able to live longer on the outside than most.”
Through six regular season Grassroots starts Artful Way had posted three wins, two thirds and one fifth, finishing third in the point standings. Saturday’s victory improved the gelding’s sophomore record to five wins, three seconds and three thirds in 17 starts for earnings of $78,380.
While Saturday’s event completed the 2015 Grassroots season, eight events remain on the Gold Series calendar before the Oct. 10 Super Finals at Woodbine Racetrack. Mohawk Racetrack will host the three-year-old trotting colts and two-year-old pacing fillies on Monday and the two-year-old trotting colts and three-year-old trotting fillies on Tuesday, post time 7:25 pm.
For complete results please visit Mohawk Racetrack Results — Sept. 26, 2015