DUNDAS, ON — Flamboro Downs fans will be treated to another afternoon of entertainment by one of the most talented divisions in the Ontario Sires Stakes program when the three-year-old trotting fillies return to the Dundas oval for their $130,000 Gold Final on Friday afternoon.
Leading the gifted distaffers into the rich event is reigning Gold Final and Canadian Breeders Championship winner McCall Magic, who will be aiming for her sixth win of the season from Post 2 in the ninth race. Dr. John Hayes trains and co-owns the Angus Hall daughter with Michael Horgan of Roseneath, Press Time Stable of Tillsonburg and Kim Kaplan of Worcester, MA, and the Beamsville resident says the filly’s success has been a joy ride from start to finish.
“There is a group of people involved with this horse, and they are having the time of their life,” says Hayes. “You get jaded in this business, but every now and then you get this little oasis of people who are having fun.
“Kim Kaplan is the only one who hasn’t seen her race and he is flying up this week so he’ll see her race Friday. I think if they were school kids, there would be some awful lies told to teachers that day.”
After starting her season with a pair of seconds and a pair of fourths the filly got her first taste of the winner’s circle in a non-winners of two races event at Woodbine Racetrack on June 22. She then captured her July 2 Gold Elimination with an Ontario Sires Stakes record equalling performance and was back in the winner’s circle after the July 9 Gold Final before getting a well deserved two-week break.
After her fourth-place finish in the Canadian Breeders Elimination, McCall Magic bounced back with a stakes record 1:55.1 victory in the July 31 Final and then arrived at Flamboro last week to post an elimination victory in 1:57.4, just one-fifth of a second shy of the sophomore trotting filly track record.
“It’s a bit beyond expectations,” says Hayes. “She has continued to improve and kept her form while a couple of others have stubbed their toes here and there. We’ve just accepted the gift that’s been presented to us and are riding it.”
Hayes is quick to credit driver Steve Condren with the filly’s ongoing success, noting that the veteran reinsman has been invaluable in developing McCall Magic’s relaxed style of racing.
“Steve has kind of orchestrated the whole thing. To say he is a great driver is to understate. He’s extremely skilled,” says the trainer. “There are a lot of people who can drive a horse well. There are a lot of people who can make a horse go fast, but there are a few who have that total self control and their driving IQ is Mensa in its scope, and he is one of them.”
Hayes and his partners bred McCall Magic, named in honour of reproductive veterinarian Dr. Jack McCall, but Ontario Sires Stakes fans will see only two more offspring from their broodmare Maddie Maye, who died soon after foaling a King Conch half-sister in 2003. The loss of the filly’s mother is just one more element that adds to the partners’s pleasure in McCall Magic’s success and Hayes plans to enjoy every moment.
“Some of the bumps in the road make you appreciate where you are at,” reflects the horseman. “You just have to celebrate today and that’s it.”
McCall Magic’s connections hope to add another celebration to their memory books after Race 9 on Friday. Flamboro Downs sends its first race behind the starting gate at 2:45 pm.