Super Chapter matched the track and Canadian record for aged trotting stallions and French Wine returned victorious to the site of his career’s biggest win when they won their respective $50,000 eliminations for the Grade 1 Maple Leaf Trot on Friday, Aug. 28 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Marcus Melander trainee Super Chapter swooped up the rim off quick fractions to coast home to victory with a 1:49.4 effort in his elimination. ​

Driver Dexter Dunn seated Super Chapter into third while Antognoni S (Yannick Gingras) looped out of the pocket for the lead through a :27.1 first quarter. Once on the point, Antognoni S maintained his speed to a :54.4 half and kept rolling through the last turn, where Dunn angled off the pylons and sent Super Chapter marching forward. Antognoni S held a diminishing lead past three-quarters in 1:22.3 and gave way in the stretch once Super Chapter surged to the front. Dunn kept his charge to task as he strode in a half-length winner over fast-closing Emoticon Legacy (Bob McClure) in second. Go Dog Go (Scott Zeron) shook free from a ground-saving trip for third with Up Your Deo (Todd McCarthy) coming from third-over for fourth and Antognoni S tiring but holding the last berth into the final.

“I think he showed last year that he was one of the better three-year-olds,” said Melander after the race. “The way he’s coming back as a four-year-old has just been great. He has the will to want to be first, and he went first-up against these horses again today and won easily. He’s a fantastic horse.”

A stallion by Chapter Seven out of Lifetime Pursuit, Super Chapter equalled the track and Canadian record for aged trotting stallions set by his stablemate Aetos Kronos S when he won his Maple Leaf Trot elimination in 2025. The current overall male record of 1:49.1 was set in last year's final by gelding Lexus Kody.

Super Chapter, competing for owners Jeff Snyder of New York City, New York, Arthur Pronti of Jersey City, New Jersey and Hanover Shoe Farms of Hanover, Pennsylvania, has now won four of his six starts this season and 18 of his 31 career starts while banking $2,913,843. 

Back in action for the first time since collaring Lexus Kody in the John Cashman Memorial on Hambletonian Day, Aug. 8 at The Meadowlands, he paid $2.90 to win as the bettors' choice.

French Wine, whose last victory was last year at Woodbine Mohawk Park when he rallied for a mild upset in the Breeders Crown Open Trot, soared from last to first down the center of the track on Friday to win the other Maple Leaf Trot elimination in 1:50.3.

Driver Jason Bartlett and French Wine took back from the outermost draw in the sextet as odds-on favourite Lexus Kody (Yannick Gingras) muscled outside through a :26.3 first quarter to take the lead from Yo Tillie (Todd McCarthy). Bartlett fished cover out of fifth from Aetos Kronos S (Dexter Dunn) after a :55.2 half and steadily inched into the action approaching three-quarters in 1:23.1. French Wine lifted off cover spinning for home and powered over the top to win going away by 1-3/4 lengths. Aetos Kronos S gave chase for second with Private Access (James MacDonald) rallying from a shuffle for third, Yo Tillie taking fourth and Lexus Kody holding onto the last spot into the final.

“We just had to beat one horse [to make the final] and the way they were mixing it up early was to our benefit going to the quarter, and having Dexter in front of us, I knew I was going to get a good trip," said Bartlett after the race. “Going into the last turn, I was on a loose line a little bit and I touched [French Wine] a couple times then he got around Dexter’s helmet. Halfway around the last turn, I knew we had a good shot because he was actually pulling me and was ready to explode off the cover that we know he can do. No anxious moments down by the wire, he was flawlessly gaited and Nancy’s got him good.”

Nancy Takter trains French Wine, a six-year-old Bar Hopping-Creamy Mimi stallion, who won for the first time from four starts this season. The 17-time career winner race from 53 starts now has earnings totalling $1,916,632 for owners Daniel & Jean Christophe Plouffe of Bromont, Que., and One Legend Stable of Laval, Que.

“It’s been a little bit of a challenge trying to keep him tight,” said Takter. “When he raced in the Cashman [finishing fifth], he hadn’t raced since six weeks before and he didn’t even race very well. I don’t think that he’s at the top of his game just yet – hopefully we can get there – but he raced super tonight. I’m really happy with him.”

Sent off as the fourth choice in the betting, French Wine paid $13.70 to win.

Each elimination winner earned draw protection between posts two through six for the Grade 1 Maple Leaf Trot, which will be contested next Saturday, Sept. 5 at Mohawk.

Earlier in the evening, veteran trainer Murray Brethour celebrated a career milestone, surpassing $20 million in earnings when three-year-old pacing gelding Sunset Loo won the opener.  

A homebred owned by George and Greg Hunt of Otonabee, Ont., the Dancin Lou-Sunset Filly retook the lead in the second quarter for driver Travis Cullen and drew off from the competition to win in 1:50.4 for a 9-1 upset in a $22,000 conditioned pace for Ontario Grassroots or Prospect Series starters.

Brethour has posted six-figure seasons for the past 20 years, with three consecutive million-dollar campaigns from 2009-2011. The Sunderland, Ont. horseman's career-best year was in 2010 when he trained winners of 85 races and more than $1.8 million. Brethour has also driven winners of 1,799 races and more than $7.8 million in purses.

Mohawk hosted the fourth leg of the Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) for Grassroots three-year-old pacing fillies on Friday night.

Locked in the pocket until the final eighth of a mile in the first $30,000 division, trainer Zach Carroll's homebred Cant Turn You Down escaped in the nick of time for driver Bob McClure to prevail in 1:50.3 for her fifth win in a row. The lightly raced Cattlewash-Amulet Seelster filly, who is also co-owned by Sean Downey of Strathroy, Ont., is now six-for-eight in her debut season with a prior OSS win in the July 31 leg of the Grassroots Series.

Before the heavy 1-5 favourite found clearance in the stretch, she tracked pacesetter Romantic Beauty (Doug McNair) through fractions of :26, :53.2 and 1:21.4. My Girl Friday (James MacDonald) fanned off the cover of a parked-from-the-start Cackle Berry (Tyler Jones) and struck the front in the stretch but settled for second as Cant Turn You Down found a clear path and rallied by to her outside. Early trailer No Better Air (Trevor Henry) came on for third, edging out Cackle Berry (Tyler Jones) in a show photo. 

The second Grassroots division was won by P N G Shadow and Mark MacDonald in 1:50.3 as the Dr. Ian Moore trainee swept to the lead over 3-2 favourite Jen Tilly (Yannick Gingras) approaching the midway mark and fended off a final-turn challenge from A Bets A Bet (Scott Young), then battled back in the stretch when headed by the re-emerging bettors' choice at the pylons. Moore co-owns P N G Shadow, a daughter of Cattlewash out of Lady Arthur, in partnership with breeders R G McGroup of Bathurst, N.B, and Serge Savard, St-Bruno, Que.

The action-packed card wrapped up with the $30,000 final of a conditioned Pop-Up Series for female pacers, with Betternotmachme splitting rivals in deep stretch for an 8-1 upset in 1:51. Picking up her first win in 28 starts this year, the six-year-old mare campaign by the mother and son, training and driving duo of Jodie and Travis Cullen knocked one full second off her lifetime mark. The series was for mares that started for a purse of $11,000 or less in their last three starts, with winners over $40,000 in 2026 not eligible.

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

(Woodbine & Standardbred Canada)