A third generation O'Brien Award winner, Solar Sister is in the running to add to her family's legacy as a finalist once again for the 2016 edition of the annual gala honouring Canada's harness racing stars.
Already an O'Brien Award winner as Canada's Three-Year-Old Pacing Filly of 2015, Solar Sister put together a solid four-year-old follow-up campaign, winning four of 17 starts and more than $400,000 to earn a 2016 O'Brien nomination in the older pacing mare division.
"David and I were very pleased with Solar Sister's 2016 season and her very successful transition into her four-year-old season and competition against aged mares, including several prior and the currently defending U.S. aged and three-year-old and Canadian aged division champions," co-owner and breeder Clay Horner, of Toronto, told Trot Insider. "She is one of a very few horses which are top two-year-old performers but continue to improve further absolutely and relatively as both three and four-year-olds."
Solar Sister took a mark of 1:49.4 in winning the $200,000 Artiscape at Tioga Downs, which was her biggest payday of the year. She also won the $100,000 Chip Noble Memorial and hit the board in the added-distance Golden Girls and Lady Liberty stakes as well as the Roses Are Red Stakes and Ellamony.
"The highlights of her season were her powerful win at Tioga in the Artiscape in 1:49.4, first-over from the three-eighths to defeat Lady Shadow and her outstanding races with difficult parked trips in both the Lady Liberty and Golden Girls." Horner was especially impressed with that effort in the Golden Girls, pointing out that Solar Sister left from the second tier in that race and paced in the same time as and a final three-eighths faster than Always B Miki in his sensational world record win for a mile and an eighth in the William R. Haughton Memorial.
Developed by Gregg McNair and predominantly driven by Doug McNair, Horner praises the work of the training-driving tandem with a special mention to a third and vital team member.
"Gregg McNair and his team have done a terrific job with Solar Sister since breaking her as a yearling and deserve great credit for their management and care of her. Amy McNair Davis has been a huge part of that and has a special bond with Solar Sister."
Owned by Horner and David Willmot of King City, Ont., the homebred mare is a millionaire daughter of the late Mach Three and Cabrini Hanover, who was named Two-Year-Old Pacing Filly of the Year in 2004, the same year her dam Cathedra was named Broodmare of the Year. Cathedra was also an O'Brien winner in 1995 as a two-year-old and produced the 2001 champion three-year-old filly Cathedra Dot Com and two-year-old colt Western Shooter.
"It is always very rewarding to be nominated for an O'Brien Award. It is particularly rewarding in the case of Solar Sister given the unprecedented success of her maternal family in winning O'Brien Awards," said Horner. "I think Solar Sister, 'Cabrini' and Cathedra are the only three successive generation female winners, and there are five O'Brien winners and six O'Brien wins in the female side of her pedigree."
In addition to their success with Solar Sister and her dam, Horner and Willmot have a long history with the O'Briens.
"The O'Brien Awards are a great celebration of success for all nominees," said Horner. "It is 20 years since my first winner with His Mattjesty, 10 years since the excitement of both Doonbeg and Domitian Hanover winning in the same year and it was exciting to win with Solar Sister last year in a close race with Wrangler Magic. In addition to Solar Sister's win last year, David has won before with Southwind Allaire and Cabrini Hanover. They all are exciting and, of course, we hope that Solar Sister might one day be the dam of another generation of a homebred O'Brien winner."
The connections of Doonbeg receive the O'Brien Award for Three-Year-Old Pacing Colt of the Year in 2006
While Horner is hoping to continue the family's O'Brien Award-winning legacy in the future, Solar Sister will be returning to the spotlight herself for the 2017 racing season.
"We are looking forward to racing Solar Sister again [this] year," he noted. "Her two-year-old sister Muskoka Moonlight, by Shadow Play, is in training with Gregg in Florida, her yearling brother by Sportswriter, appropriately named Perkins after the racing-friendly former Toronto Star sports editor, is a great looker and Cabrini is due to foal a Mach Three full brother or sister to Solar Sister this spring."
Solar Sister is an O'Brien Award finalist along with the division's defending champion and multiple-stakes winner Lady Shadow. The winner will be announced at the annual Black Tie Gala on Saturday, Jan. 28 at the Hilton Mississauga / Meadowvale Hotel in Mississauga, Ont.
"Solar Sister has the pedigree of a champion and has raced like one for three years. It is a thrill to own her with David Willmot, who is a great friend, and we are very thankful for her recognition again this year as an O'Brien nominee."
For a full list of 2016 O'Brien Award finalists, click here. For details about the Black Tie Gala, click here.