Last year, Crack Shot became the first horse in history to win both the Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Grassroots Final and the Gold Super Final. This year, the son of Bettors Delight out of Beautyonthebeach joined a select group of Ontario stars that have won Super Finals in back-to-back years.
Crack Shot and driver Doug McNair won the $300,000 Super Final for 3-year-old pacing colts on Saturday (Oct. 11) at Woodbine Mohawk Park in dominating fashion, exploding away in the stretch to post a 5 ½-length win in a career best 1:49.2.
Starting from post five in the field of 10, Crack Shot sat third in the early going as 99-1 shot Control Rocks (Tyler Borth) led the field through a :25.4 opening quarter and a :54.2 half. Doug had Crack Shot out and rolling before the 1:22 three-quarter station and then pulled away in the stretch to defeat Fifth And Five (Jody Jamieson). Boxer Seelster (Trevor Henry) was third, followed by Control Rocks and Allstar Maniac (James MacDonald).
“I didn’t know how the race was going to shape up,” McNair told Woodbine broadcaster John Rallis. “There was a couple on the outside that I thought might take a shot getting out of there, but we were speeding pretty good up front. I thought I had the best horse and, you know, he’s been getting better and better towards the end of the year, so I just didn’t want to get him in any trouble.”
Sent off as the 1-2 favourite, Crack Shot paid $3.10 for the win.
It was the third Gold triumph of the year for the Gregg McNair trainee, who also finished a close second in two other Gold outings in 2025. Gregg, who collected his sixth Johnston Cup victory as the top trainer in the OSS program said it’s been a challenge to keep Crack Shot fit this year.
“He had some problems there on his left side and we were working on the wrong thing to start with, then we just learned what it was towards the end of the year,” Gregg said. “He had a knee bothering him a bit and once we got doing the maintenance work on that, it sure helped him a lot.”
Crack Shot improved to 6-4-1 in 14 starts on the year and 11-5-1 in 22 lifetime outings. The colt has seasonal earnings of $495,335 and a lifetime bankroll of $734,160.
Gregg owns Crack Shot with London Knights coach and former NHLer Dale Hunter, Frank Brundle and George Kerr.
Brundle said he was happy Crack Shot won the Grassroots and Super Final last year and repeated in the latter this year.
“We did it again,” Brundle said. “I was very happy with how he progressed and how well he’s doing.”
Hunter, who has coached the Knights to back-to-back Memorial Cup championships, said he fulfilled his father, Dick Hunter’s dying wish to own a top horse. Crack Shot was purchased for $205,000 at the 2023 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale.