Chantilly, Canada’s reigning Horse of the Year, set a career best 1:49.4 mark while easily besting a field of 10 in the lone $140,000 Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Gold Series event for 3-year-old pacing fillies on Saturday (May 24) at Woodbine Mohawk Park. It was the first OSS Gold event of 2025.
Millar Farms’ homebred daughter of Big Jim out of Shiraz Seelster, who was sent off at 1-9, is now undefeated through all 11 career starts. It was her second pari-mutuel win of 2025 and pushed her career earnings to the brink of $900,000 ($897,756 CDN to be exact).
Starting from the rail, driver James MacDonald positioned Chantilly fourth in the early going. The pair took the lead with a strong brush before reaching the half in :55. They opened up on the field from there through the three-quarters in 1:21.4 and came home in :28 to win by 4½ lengths over Wickedpace on a cold, windy night.
Perfectly Chic was third, Wicked N Single finished fourth and Outtathisworld Deo picked up the final cheque.
“[Chantilly’s] high gear is just something else,” MacDonald told Woodbine Mohawk Park’s Chad Rozema. “I was able to clear the lead pretty, pretty easily. And then she’s just one of those horses – and I’ve only driven a few of them in my life – where you feel like you’re absolutely crawling… You’ve got to be careful with her, because she’s just got unbelievable speed.
“She’s just a special horse. She’s passed every test with flying colours. I would have liked to go :52 with the brakes on, but she’s got other plans. Sometimes when you put her in top gear she’s just relentless with her speed. Hopefully, she keeps carrying on to bigger and better things.”
Whether that means Chantilly will be entered against the boys in the $1 million Pepsi North America Cup or the Fan Hanover for sophomore fillies (both have their finals on June 14 at Woodbine Mohawk Park) will be up to her owner George Millar, said Chantilly’s trainer Nick Gallucci.
“It’s going to be George Millar’s call,” Gallucci said. “We’ll just see what happens, and I’m good with whatever decision he makes.”
Chantilly will get next week off, Gallucci said.