Cant Turn You Down turned up the volume to full blast in the Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Super Final for 3-year-old filly pacers on Saturday night (Oct. 10) at Woodbine Mohawk Park. The 2026 OSS Grassroots champion had earned respect with an eight-race win streak coming into the $350,000 Gold Super Final, yet was untested against the top-tier fillies.
Regular driver Bob McClure settled Cant Turn You Down into sixth along the pylons early, as 4-5 favourite Shes A Bulldog led to a :25.3 opening quarter, co-fastest of the card. First-over challenger A Clean Deal soon charged into second, working to clear Shes A Bulldog before the :53.2 half. At soon as A Clean Deal landed on the lead, Cant Turn You Down stepped out to follow the cover of first-up Pownal Bay Bobbi. McClure’s filly sat second-over in fourth approaching three-quarters, reached in 1:21.4 by A Clean Deal. Moving three-wide for the stretch drive, Cant Turn You Down avoided the confusion happening behind A Clean Deal: Pocket-sitting Shes A Bulldog ran up on A Clean Deal, then broke stride and interfered with the filly behind her, Naughty Delight.
Cant Turn You Down overtook Pownal Bay Bobbi mid-stretch, holding off a fast-closing Daya by three lengths in an impressive OSS divisional record of 1:48.3.
Sent off as 2-1 second choice, the homebred daughter of Cattlewash–Amulet Seelster was famously tough to get pacing at age 2, but trainer Zach Carroll believed in her, and so did her driver.
“It’s just one of my favourite wins of all time,” an emotional McClure told interviewer John Rallis after the win. “Just where this filly started and how far she’s come. She does have a great pedigree, but she’s got nothing else going for her except she wants to do it. She shouldn’t have even made the races, but she wants to be a racehorse so bad.”
In the paddock after the biggest win of her career, Cant Turn You Down stood quietly while her trainer explained how she moved from OSS Grassroots to Gold.
“A rule they implemented a couple of years ago was Grassroots champions, if the Super Final doesn’t fill with horses who had enough [OSS Gold] points, you’re allowed to enter,” said Carroll.
Cant Turn You Down did not race at 2.
“She was just immature,” said Carroll, who trains a stable of 8 to 10 horses at Dorchester Downs Training Center outside of London, ON. “She needed time to grow into herself. She was big, awkward, kind of gangly. I always joke that she had the athleticism of a baby giraffe. She’s still not great today, but she’s much better, and that time did all the good in the world for her.”
Although he did enter Cant Turn You Down in one qualifier last year, on July 7 at Mohawk, she trailed throughout and finished last.
“Then she was in to qualify a second time, and she ended up being sick the morning of, so we didn’t qualify her and we just decided to turn her out,” Carroll said. “We brought her back in in October to get ready for her 3-year-old year. Even this year, coming back, it was not the easiest road to get here. We qualified a couple of times in March, and then she come up lame after the second qualifier. She had really bad foot abscesses in both front feet. So she missed about a month, standing around waiting to get those cleared up. Then finally in June, we qualified her again, and nothing could have prepared us. We had no idea she was this good.”
The 26-year-old trainer said it was only his third year campaigning his own roster, but he had previously worked for John Pentland. Carroll grew up on Talbot Creek Farm of Shedden, ON, which breeds Standardbreds and Thoroughbreds.
Cant Turn You Down will now be turned out at Talbot Creek.
“That’s all we can do this year,” Carroll said. “We’ll try again next year.”