Last active in early May, 2025 O'Brien Award winner Emoticon Legacy prepared for his upcoming four-year-old season with a solid qualifying effort on Friday, July 10 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

While a number of his contemporaries competed in the recently-concluded Graduate Series and look to butt heads in the Hambletonian Maturity on Saturday (July 11) at The Meadowlands, Emoticon Legacy stayed away from the racing wars since that qualifier at Mohawk on May 4.

Emoticon Legacy faced just three rivals on Friday morning, although (no offense) on paper calling the other three entrants rivals is a bit a stretch.

Bob McClure handled the four-year-old son of Walner-Emoticon Hanover for trainer Luc Blais and owner Determination of Montreal, Que. on Friday morning. From post four, Emoticon Legacy crossed over the lead and faced nary an anxious moment from there. After fractions of :29.4, :59.1 and 1:27.4, Emoticon Legacy closed willingly in :27.4 to win by six lengths in a time of 1:55.4. Tricky trish (Jonathan Drury) finished second with Kngtstlkrs Games (Louis-Philippe Roy) in for third.

Emoticon Legacy sports a career summary of 11-1-0 from 17 starts with more than $1.5 million in earnings. His mark of 1:49.2, taken last fall at The Red Mile, missed the world record for sophomore male trotters by one-fifth of a second.

Friday's eight-dash qualifying session also featured six races comprised either entirely or primarily of two-year-olds. On the pacing side, HP Follow Me delivered the swiftest mile of the morning with a 1:56.2 mile for driver Roy and trainer Chantal Mitchell. All Day Hanover (Phil Hudon) fronted the field through a :30 first quarter, yielded to Up Sheets Creek (James MacDonald) approaching the half, and was then shuffled back to third as Roy right-lined HP Follow Me to clear to the top through the :59.3 half. HP Follow Me played catch-me-if-you-can after that, uncorking a :56.4 back half through a 1:28 third station to trip the timer in 1:56.2. Up Sheets Creek finished 4-1/2 lengths back in second with Biscuitinthebasket (Anthony Haughan) rallying well late to complete the top trio.

HP Follow Me is a homebred son of Cattlewash-HP Bellamy, owned by breeder Claude Hamel of Orford, Que. along with Jean Denis Pelletier of Shefford, Que.

Beauts Cabaret dazzled in her second appearance, winning in wire-to-wire fashion to top the day's two-year-old trotters. On top at every call for driver James MacDonald, Beauts Cabaret danced solo through panels of :30.2, 1:00.4 and 1:29.4, then sashayed home in :28.2 for the 1:58.1 speed badge. Dataprivacy (McClure) closed well to secure second with Manking (Jody Jamieson) next across the wire.

A daughter of International Moni-Southwind Cabaret bred by New Jersey's Southwind Farms, Beauts Cabaret is co-owned by trainer Steve Bossence of London, Ont. along with Stephen Palermo of Etobicoke, Ont. and Jeff Ruch of Innisfil, Ont.

The full qualifying session is available below.

To view the results, click the following link: Friday Results (Qualifiers) - Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Live harness racing continues at Mohawk on Friday night, where a big score and a big carryover is the talk of the town heading into the evening card.

Horseplayers will need to be ready for the start of tonight’s 11-race card, as the Early Pick-5 features a carryover of $52,295 after there were no winning tickets on Thursday evening’s Late Pick-5.

The Early Pick-5 is guaranteed nightly at $75,000, features a 15 per cent takeout, $0.20 minimum and starts in Race 1.

Despite no winning tickets for Thursday’s Late Pick-5, there was a single winning ticket for the Race 10 Jackpot Hi-5. An HPIbet customer spent $236 on a Jackpot Hi-5 ticket that connected for a payout of $143,933.81.

It was not the only major Jackpot Hi-5 win of Thursday, as another HPIbet customer hit the Thoroughbred Hi-5 at Woodbine Racetrack for a score of $92,869.17.

Tonight’s 11-race card card is headlined by the Tompkins-Geers Stakes for two-year-old pacers. A field of 11 fillies will meet in Race 5, while nine colts and geldings clash in Race 7.

First post time for tonight’s card is 6:30 p.m.

(Standardbred Canada; with files from Woodbine)