With the eliminations for the 2024 Breeders Crown championship events on the horizon, a number of accomplished individuals from the Luc Blais operation tuned up for possible appearances in those lucrative events during the session of qualifiers on Friday, Oct. 11 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Each of those Determination-owned Blais students could see action during the elims for the Breeders Crown, taking place on Oct. 18 and 19 at The Meadowlands.
Lasting Dream was a front-stepping winner in her first appearance since the 2024 Mohawk Million. The runner-up in both the Mohawk Million and the Peaceful Way, Lasting Dream lugged driver James MacDonald through fractions of :31.1, :59.3 and 1:29.1 before marching home in :30 to trip the timer in 1:59.1. Stablemate Emoticon Legacy sat behind throughout and finished second under a snug hold to driver Louis-Philippe Roy.
With a cheque earned in each of her eight appearances, Lasting Dream (Cantab Hall - Dream Together) will look to add to her 2-3-2 summary and $390,875 next week.
Drawn Impression followed a similar pattern to success in her return to action. The sophomore trotting filly, whose three-race win streak was snapped by a pylon-slithering French Champagne in the Elegantimage final, did all the front end work in her Friday test. She closed in :28.2 after fractions of :30.1, 1:00.2 and 1:29.4 to hit the beam for Roy in 1:58.1. Like Lasting Dream, Drawn Impression also bested a stablemate, Emoji Hanover (MacDonald), by two lengths.
A daughter of Muscle Hill - Emoticon Hanover, Drawn Impression (pictured above) boasts more than $605,000 in earnings, a mark of 1:52.2s and seven lifetime victories — three this year, and one coming last year in her Breeders Crown elimination.
One Blais trotting pupil that did connect after a pocket trip on Friday morning was three-year-old trotting colt Private Access. He didn't have a stablemate to follow, but Century Jaguar (Trevor Henry) cut 75 per cent of the mile courtesy splits of :31, 1:00 and 1:29 with Private Access on his back. In the stretch, Roy tipped Private Access off Henry's helmet and the sophomore trotted past willingly for the 1:58.1 tally.
With his first mile since March, Century Jaguar trotted well to finish 1-1/2 lengths back in second. That return was overshadowed by 2019 Horse of the Year Forbidden Trade, making his first on-track appearance in more than a year. Now eight, Forbidden Trade finished an unstressed third for trainer-driver Blais with his mile individually timed in 1:59.2.
Private Access (Muscle Hill - Open Access) sports a 1-4-1 summary from 11 starts this year, with runner-up scores in his Hambletonian elim and his most recent pari-mutuel outing — the 2024 Canadian Trotting Classic. He'll look to add to his $387,102 bankroll, as he did in the 2023 Breeders Crown with his elim win and fourth-place finish in the final.
The video stream from Mohawk is available below.
For results from the qualifying session, click the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers).
(Standardbred Canada)