An aggressive steer from driver Doug McNair eventually landed Up And Ready into the pocket, from which she then pounced and powered to a 1:55.1 victory in taking the $225,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final for three-year-old trotting fillies on Saturday (Oct. 16) at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
McNair motored Up And Ready for the top, circling early leader Dicentra through a :28.3 first quarter with 6-5 favourite HP Mama B tracking her move into the backside. HP Mama B overtook Up And Ready after a patient grind approaching a :57.2 half and rated while on the point into the final turn to take the field to three-quarters in 1:26.4.
Imextraspecial led the two-wide tier but stalled coming into the stretch. Hawaii and You Will Be Queen fired off cover and closed ground coming into the final eighth, though Up And Ready was already up and gone. McNair lifted Up And Ready out of second and stormed to the lead, cruising to the finish chased by Hawaii and You Will Be Queen while HP Mama B faded to fourth.
“She’s been great all year,” McNair said after the race. “She just hasn’t had the best trips. Things haven’t been working out just perfect for her, but tonight we had a perfect post [and] the trip set up just exactly the way we had hoped it would and she got real lucky. She was real good in the stretch when she got out. I figured Bob [McClure and Dicentra] just wanted to float his and get position early, and he did. When we came back around, Sylvain [Filion and HP Mama B] had one of the ones I wanted to follow, and I was real happy to follow him. It just worked out really great.
“It really caps my year off,” McNair also said. “It’s great to win one of these races – they’re hard to be involved in, let alone win one. I was going to steal one of James [MacDonald]’s hats earlier, but I’ve got my own now.
“[It’s] a tribute to the job Matt [Bax]’s done with her all year,” trainer John Bax said after the race. “I’m real happy for the owners because they invested a lot of money in her and she’s camera shy, just looking for a trip. And Doug gave her the trip tonight [that] she likes. She’s got that one go at her and she’s been getting absolutely better this fall. I don’t know if that’s to do with the weather or not, but she was super sharp tonight.”
A daughter of Kadabra, Up And Ready won her second race from 13 starts this season and her third from 22 overall. She has banked $477,622 for owners Al Libfeld, Marvin & Lynn Katz and Sam Goldband. She paid $10.80 to win and may have a change in plans following the Super Final win to have a go at the Breeders Crown, which has the Three-Year-Old Filly Trot eliminations set for Saturday (Oct. 23).
“I’ll have to talk to them because we’ve got the SBOA coming up,” John Bax said. “So it wasn’t in the game plan, but I’ll let them make that decision.”
Be sure to check out the rest of the recaps in the 2021 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final News Centre.