Four years removed from a devastating barn fire, the Steacy stable has persevered to reach new heights in 2022. Team Steacy can add to its record bankroll in the 2022 Breeders Crown, sending out a pair of highly-talented fillies this weekend at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

"I thought at that time 'this is it, we're done, it's over,'" Mark Steacy recalled that horrific experience at the 2022 Breeders Crown Dinner and Post Draw on Tuesday (Oct. 25). "For me to come back, for Shawn to come back and Clarke is also involved with the stable, too...thank goodness for my owners that stood behind me. And at that time too, the industry supported us very well, they helped us so much. But my owners, they stuck by me and invested again. We just worked hard at it, and here we are."

Here is a $2.3 million season with 92 wins. Purse-wise, Shawn Steacy (who was racing on Tuesday night and unable to attend the draw) ranks third in the nation among trainers with his stable bankroll at a personal best for Mark or Shawn. The 92 seasonal wins places Steacy in the top seven of Canada's conditioners. Mark, who won the 2007 O'Brien Award of Horsemanship, provided a simple reason for the stable's success.

"A lot of hard work. Kathy and myself, we go back and forth between Landsdowne and First Line, Clarke develops the horses there and Shawn races them here...just a lot of hard work and a lot of good staff."

That hard work has certainly paid off with pacing filly Sylvia Hanover. The Always B Miki two-year-old sister to double millionaire Western Fame has been nearly flawless in her eight appearances for owner Hudson Standardbred Stable Inc. of Hudson, Que., winning seven while banking $498,300. She'll seek her seventh straight score in the US$600,000 Breeders Crown final for two-year-old filly pacers on Friday (Oct. 28).

"She's a different kind of a filly," Steacy told Trot Insider. "She's very lazy, she only does what she has to do, and she doesn't do any more...she's very smart, very good-gaited, and she always seems to have a little bit more when needed. If a horse comes to her, she wants to race them. 

"She seems to want to win, and that's what counts."

Winning is what the oddsmakers are expecting from Sylvia Hanover on Friday night, listing her as the 8-5 morning line choice. She leaves from post five with regular pilot Bob McClure at the lines, but Steacy isn't overconfident given the depth of the competition.

"There are a lot of good fillies in this race and it's not going to be easy by any means," noted Mark. "The fillies that were first and second in the other division [Charleston (PP1, Dexter Dunn, 5-2) and Strong Poison (PP2 Yannick Gingras, 5-2)], they looked pretty promising last week...and some of the other ones, too. It's not going to be an easy chore, but we have as much chance — or more — as any of them."

Steacy's second chance at a 2022 Breeders Crown title comes on Saturday in the three-year-old trotting filly division. There, Warrawee Xenia (PP7, McClure, 8-1) will tangle with a killer group of sophomore trotting fillies that includes a Hambletonian elim winner (Jiggy Jog S, PP2, D. Dunn, 7-5), the Yonkers Trot winner (Joviality S, PP4, Brian Sears, 6-5) and the Hambletonian Oaks winner (Fashion Schooner, PP6, Tim Tetrick, 6-1). For the record, Warrawee Xenia was sent off as the public choice in the 2022 Hambletonian Oaks but the daughter of Walner - Shared Past made a miscue and finished last.

The version of Warrawee Xenia that showed up for Steacy and her co-owners — David McDonald of Cornwall, Ont., Dale Larson of Kent City, Mich. and Diane Bertrand of Lake Country, B.C. — in the Breeders Crown elimination was a welcome sight. She finished fourth, just a length and a half back of Joviality S.

"Oh, I was so happy. She raced so good. She got locked in, only missed second by a step and probably if she got out earlier she might have given Joviality a very good go. It was nice to see her come back to her form again because she had three or four weeks where she wasn't so good and I think she's going into the race in good shape this week."

To watch and listen to the full interview with Steacy, click the play button below.

All four Breeders Crown finals for two-year-olds will be contested Friday at Mohawk. Racing begins at 7 p.m. (EDT) with the Crown fields going behind the gate in races six through nine. The finals for horses three and up are Saturday, also starting at 7 p.m.

To view the complete entries for this weekend's Breeders Crown finals, click one of the following links:

• Friday, Oct. 28 — Entries / Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT)
• Saturday, Oct. 29 — Entries / Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT)