Synergy prevailed at odds of 17-1 in an eventful Breeders Crown elimination for the two-year-old trotting colts and geldings with Yannick Gingras aboard for trainer Per Engblom.

Synergy found himself sitting second after a pair of early breakers in front left him gapping race leader Beads (Paul MacDonell) by seven lengths at the :27.2 quarter mark. As he caught up with the tempo-setter approaching the half in :57, a parked out Back Of The Neck (Brian Sears) moved up to pressure and gained a short lead. Beads countered past three-quarters in 1:25.4 while Third Shift (Ake Svanstedt) fanned wide off the final turn.

In the sprint to the wire, Synergy came through to win in 1:55 flat by a half-length with Third Shift edging out Rome Pays Off (Tim Tetrick) for the runner-up role. Chestnut Hill (David Miller) recovered from an early break in stride and closed on the outside for fourth. Moon Bridge (Sylvain Filion) finished fifth with Beads (Paul MacDonell) ending up sixth. Amigo Volo (Dexter Dunn), the 1-2 favourite, also managed to make the final after trouble on the backstretch.

The top seven finishers in the $32,500 elimination will join Capricornus, Port Perry and Real Cool Sam in the freshman trotting colt final as those three received byes.

"To earn your post one through five is so important, in my opinion, you have to give the horse a chance," said Gingras. "It makes a world of difference.

"Going into the first turn there were so many breakers, I didn't know what happened to Dexter, I thought he [Amigo Volo] was the horse to beat. Around the last turn I thought maybe I had a decent chance. I could have gone wide in the turn where Ake went but, like you said, I was more in the race to make the final. At that point, I thought I had a lot of trot and I figured maybe I'd take my shot up the inside, but he really had a lot of trot in the stretch."

The Father Patrick-Southwind Sauna colt is now four-for-nine for his ownership group consisting of Brittany Farms LLC, John Fielding, Herb Liverman and David Anderson.

Synergy paid $36.90 to win.

Here is a look at the field in post position order for the championship:

$600,000 Two-Year-Old Colt Trot
1. Beads
2. Synergy
3. Moon Bridge
4. Amigo Volo
5. Chestnut Hill
6. Rome Pays Off
7. Third Shift
8. Capricornus
9. Real Cool Sam
10. Port Perry

The 2019 Breeders Crown, presented by Libfeld-Katz Breeding Partnership, will be contested next weekend at Woodbine Mohawk Park with the two-year-old championships set for Friday, Oct. 25.

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