Baroness Hill cemented her status as a filly to watch in the Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) this season with an impressive gate-to-wire victory in the first of two $101,300 OSS Gold divisions for three-year-old trotting fillies on Tuesday (June 13) at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Doug McNair took the Chantal Mitchell trainee straight to the front from post three and led the field through fractions of :28.3, :58.1 and 1:27. Entering the stretch, Paul MacDonell moved odds-on favourite Muscling Vegas from the pocket to challenge Baroness Hill, but the leader proved too strong and held on at the wire in a new lifetime mark of 1:54.2 for her biggest win to date.

“Chantal made a couple of changes and she was he was perfect tonight,” said McNair. “Once we got away from the gate, she was all trot tonight.”

The talented filly made quite the impression in her two starts as freshman, but had struggled throughout the spring making two breaks in a qualifier and failed to hit the board in her first three starts.

“She’d kind of been knuckling over behind and just throwing money out the window,” said McNair. “She is real fast, and high speed, and has tons of manners. Like I said, I don’t understand why she had been running. She showed tonight she can go fine.”

Owner Tom Hill, who purchased the Kadabra filly for $260,000 as a yearling at the 2021 Harrisburg Sale, was happy to see his star pupil take this step forward.

“You just need to look at the paperwork. She is bred to be a champion and she looks like a champion,” said Hill. “She’s starting to get what she’s got to do now and, when she finds out what she’s got to do, she’s as good of a filly as what’s in Ontario.”

The win tripled Baroness Hill’s career earnings to $78,170. She paid $9.50 for the win.

Muscling Vegas moved over the $125,000 mark with the runner-up finish to go with her SBOA Stakes victory earlier this season. MacDonell trains the filly for owners Chris and Michael Storms. Rounding the top three was Winooksi with Tyler Jones driving for his father Dustin, who trains and owns the Royalty For Life filly.

The second division was won by 3-5 favourite HP Extra Ice, who showed serious speed in the back half of her 1:53.2 win.

A trio battled for the lead early with Sweet Determination and Doug McNair emerging from the pack to lead the field through soft fractions of :28.1 and :58.2. Then James MacDonald pressed 'go' from fourth with HP Extra Ice and the Alarm Detector filly charged to the front through a :27.4 third panel and was in cruise control down the stretch. With the plugs still in, she crossed the line five lengths clear of Enola and Tyler Borth.

“She is learning to be a racehorse,” said trainer Ben Baillargeon. “Before we couldn’t pull down the backside because she thought the race was over, and now she knows the race is one mile, and she is all business.”

HP Extra Ice is the second OSS Gold winner from Alarm Detector’s freshman crop of just eight foals and she now has over $135,000 in earnings despite not racing as a two-year-old. Baillargeon co-owns the filly with Claude Hamel and Santo and Nunzio Vena.

Enola picked up the biggest cheque of her career with the second-place finish and the Keith Jones trainee improves her record to 3-8-4 from 20 starts with more than $100,000 on her card for owner Douglas McCarthy. The final podium finisher of the evening was Sweet Detrmination for trainer Patrick Lang, who co-owns the filly with Dewitt Stables. The Lookslikeachpnale filly now has more than $180,000 in OSS earnings.

To view Tuesday's harness racing results, click the following link: Tuesday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.

(with files from Ontario Sires Stakes)