The first charted on-track appearance of Beach Glass since his throat surgery came during qualifying action on Friday (Nov. 11) at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
With Hall of Famer Paul MacDonell at the controls, Beach Glass easily cleared his three rivals in the morning's first qualifier, hitting the opening quarter in :27.2. MacDonell let the sophomore pace comfortably through a :56.2 half and then let Beach Glass out a notch. The third quarter was paced in :27.1 as the beam was tripped in 1:23.3, and then Beach Glass sizzled home strongly in :26.2 for the 1:50 return effort.
Beach Glass (Somebeachsomewhere - Im With Her) has banked $1,002,086 this season while posting a 7-3-0 summary from 11 starts for trainer Brent MacGrath and Schooner II Stable of Truro, N.S. As previously reported, Beach Glass had surgery in October after his start at The Red Mile to repair a trapped epiglottis. There was a chance the colt would return for the 2022 Breeders Crown eliminations, but the connections erred on the side of caution to give the colt more time to heal.
MacGrath told Trot Insider after Friday's qualifier that he was thrilled with how Beach Glass performed and plans to drop the colt into the entry box for the eliminations of the 2022 Progress Pace at Bally's Dover. Eliminations are slated for Thursday, Nov. 17 with the final six days later.
The full video stream from Friday's qualifiers is available below.
For results from the qualifying session, click the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers).
Beach Glass racing in '23?
The fact that Beach Glass had surgery so late in the season makes me think that he'll be returning next year. The Progress Pace is the last stakes race of the year for 3yopc's, and I don't think that Mr. MacGrath would have ordered the surgery if his horse was only going to race 1 more time before being retired.