Woodbine Mohawk Park's third qualifier on Monday, April 27 showcased a pair of 2025 O'Brien Award-winning trotters prepping for their 2026 campaigns with the four-year-old mare Stormont Beautiful holding off sophomore gelding Strobe Lite through the stretch.

Driven by Bob McClure, Stormont Beautiful inherited the lead when Tavern Onthe Green broke stride on top after a :29.1 opening quarter then the Kevin Benn-trained mare cruised though middle splits of :59.3 and 1:28.1 with Strobe Lite hot on her heels after he had made a miscue at the wire while winning his second straight qualifier over a week ago. In a race of their own, the O'Brien Award winners sprinted home in :27.1 with Stormont Beautiful holding one length clear of Strobe Lite at the end of the 1:55.2 mile. Sprite Seelster, an Ontario Sires Stakes graduate, followed well back in third in her first appearance of the season.

Stormont Beautiful, a homebred daughter of Resolve out of Stormont Fried, earned half a million dollars during her award-winning sophomore season last year for Stormont Meadows of Long Sault, Ont. In addition to a 1:52.2 career-best performance in an OSS Gold event, her highlights included a runner-up finish in the Breeders Crown to U.S. divisional champion Yo Tillie. 

You Got It Kemp was impressive in his return on Monday, winning the morning's fastest trotting qualifier later in the session's penultimate ninth dash. After leading through panels of :27.3, :57.3 and 1:26.3 for James MacDonald, the four-year-old trotter sprinted away from the pocket-sitting veteran, Shadrack Hanover, in :27.1 to stop the clock in 1:53.4.

An O'Brien Award finalist in 2024 after going five-for-five in OSS action, You Got It Kemp sustained a high suspensory ligament injury after his initial three-year-old qualifier last April that kept him on the sidelines for the year. Local trainer Dan Lagace owns the Muscle Mass-Speed Titan gelding, who earned $378,167 from six rookie starts, with his children, Brady and Brooke, and the trotter's breeder, Suojalampi Stable Inc. of Delray Beach, Florida.

In the morning's fastest pacing mile, the Anthony Beaton-trained four-year-old Lite Up The World won sharply in 1:51, kicking home in :26 off a three-hole trip to win by two lengths with MacDonald in the bike. Chain Gang closed well inside for second over P L Ozzy, who had posted a :26.3 opener followed by middle panels of :56.1 and 1:24.2.

Lite Up The World, an American Ideal-Turnoffthelights stallion who boasts a lifetime mark of 1:48.2 taken at Mohawk last July, is owned by Mac and Carol Nichol of Burlington, Ont.

Beaton also had a trio of pacing sophomore qualifying winners: colt Plankton Hanover (1:55.2) over the Lagace-trained North America Cup eligible Sweet Lovin Lou; undefeated filly My Girl Friday (1:56) over stablemate Naughty Delight; and maiden filly Runaway Diva (1:57.2).

A replay of the video stream from the morning's qualifiers is available below.

To view Monday's complete qualifying results, click the following link: Monday Results (Qualifiers) - Woodbine Mohawk Park.

(Standardbred Canada; photo of Stormont Beautiful from a 2025 win at Mohawk)