When two-year-old pacing colt Mayhem Hanover got up in the final strides for a neck victory in the Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots Championship at Mohawk Park on Saturday night, Shannon Henderson, of Newmarket, Ont., became the Grand Prize winner in the Win A Share of a Racehorse Contest.
Presented by the Ontario Sires Stakes in partnership with Standardbred Canada, Henderson won one share in LandMark 13 Stable, valued at $2,000.
Adam Sarginson, Shannon Henderson, Kathy Wade Vlaar, Karen Allen, Mayhem Hanover, Brad Doyle, Doug McNair and Dan Gall
Ten finalists from across the province were drawn from thousands of entries in the contest, and each was matched with a horse in the Two-Year-Old Pacing Colt event. Henderson was matched with Mayhem Hanover. Driven by Doug McNair, the Sportswriter colt got up in the final strides following a picture-perfect two-hole trip to nail race favourite Quick Tour in a career best mile of 1:51.1.
Henderson and her boyfriend, Adam, visit Georgian Downs once or twice a week in the summer and that’s where she entered her contest ballot. She’s been involved with horses since the age of 7, growing up with a hunter/jumper background, riding, grooming, etc. and now works for a horse insurance company. “My boyfriend. Adam, has a thoroughbred background and trainer Carmen Auciello is a friend of his, so we have gone to his farm a few times to watch the horses train and as a result we now follow his string closely and have stood in the winners circle a few times with his horses this year. We are also friends with the photographer at Georgian whose son recently got involved with The Stable program and this past summer followed closely along with his horses too.”
Although she has always been a fan of Jody Jamieson, Henderson’s new favorite driver is Doug McNair since he helped her win this contest.
Hailey Saunders, Karen Allen, Shannon Henderson, Kathy Wade Vlaar, Dan Gall
“Prior to the draw selection, I was speaking to my boyfriend and said 'I hope I get the second favourite’... when we were speaking about drivers, he said 'I hope you get McNair.’ When Chad (Rozema) drew the horses on Thursday, and Mayhem Hanover was listed in the program as the second favourite with McNair, I had a feeling that I was going to win, and I did.”
Despite riding horses since age 7, she’s never owned her own horse. That has now changed with her prize of the share in LandMark 13 Stable. “I still can't believe it...I have never won anything before.”
The finalists and their guests enjoyed dinner in the Mohawk Dining Room, courtesy of Ontario Racing, a prize package with OSS swag, and many of them took advantage of having rides in the double seated jog cart rides provided by the Drive With Us Program.
This is the third consecutive year for the Win A Share contest. Monique MacLean won the 2018 contest and a share in LandMark 12 while Susan Johnson was the inaugural winner in 2017 and took home a share in LandMark 11.