The main story to emerge from this year’s Ontario Sires Stakes rookie pacing division is the dominance of sire Sportswriter, whose first crop of colts and fillies have been admired from the moment they stepped on the racetrack.
There is often a buzz among horse racing industry folks when a new sire’s first crop are in training. Sometimes the buzz proves inaccurate, but in Sportswriter’s case one could even say it wasn’t complimentary enough. To date in the OSS program, Sportswriter is the leading pacing sire overall, despite the fact that he only has two-year-olds racing and the rest on the list have two- and three-year-olds.
Sportswriter isn’t just dominating in Ontario, he currently leads the way among all pacing sires in North America in terms of money won by freshmen. He tops such luminaries as Bettors Delight, Art Major and Somebeachsomewhere.
The immediate impression the horse has made can be gleaned from a scan of the entries in Monday night’s four $105,000 OSS Gold divisions, two for fillies and two for colts. Of the 16 total fillies entered in the distaff divisions, nine are by Sportswriter, while he has seven starters among the colt divisions.
Sportswriter himself was an exceptional two-year-old performer, winning seven of eight rookie starts for $875,000. The only race he didn’t win that season was his final two-year-old start, the Breeders Crown final, where he finished second, by a head, to All Speed Hanover. The battle between those two colts was called “One of the best stretch drives in the 25 year history of the Breeders Crown.”
Owned by Steve Calhoun, West Wins Stable (Casie Coleman, Ross Warriner and Zoltan Kovacs) and Southwind Farm during his racing career, Sportswriter was trained by Coleman and driven by Mark MacDonald. His three-year-old season, which saw him win the North America Cup in June, was cut short due to a training injury in late July and he was retired to stud at Tara Hills Stud in Port Perry, Ontario.
Not surprising, a number of Sportswriters turned up in Coleman’s stable and she has seven of his sons and daughters racing in the Gold divisions Monday night. However, the leading point earner in the filly division, Sports Chic, comes from the Blake MacIntosh stable and she has post two in the first division, race one.
Owned by MacIntosh of Waterdown, Ontario, and Hutt Racing Stable, Pa., Sports Chic has yet to finish worse than second in eight starts this year and is undefeated in four Ontario Sires Stakes starts. She recently took on the Grand Circuit fillies in the Champlain Stake and finished a close second to The Show Returns. Sport Chic hails from a family of top pacing mares as her half-sister is $1.6 million winner Rainbow Blue, dam of $1.2 million winner Somwherovrarainbow.
The second highest point earner among the girls, Southwind Mischief, is from the Coleman barn and will start in the same division in post eight.
Sporting The Look tops the colts’ point standings for trainer Carl Jamieson who co-owns with breeder 30 Plus Stable of Trenton and Tom Kyron of Toronto, Ontario. Jamieson’s son Jody will pilot the colt in the second division, race nine, and will be up behind his own colt, Make Some Luck, in the first male division, race six.
Make Some Luck, whose sire is Camluck, the dominant pacing sire in the OSS for many years, captured his most recent Gold start, also at Mohawk, on September 16. Carl trains the lightly raced colt who drew post 10. Fans may interact with the colt who even has his own Twitter account.
These are the final regular season Gold events for both the colts and fillies. The top performers will return for the Super Finals on October 11 at Mohawk. To view Monday night’s entries, please click the following link: Monday Entries - Mohawk Racetrack
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