Atlantic Sire Stakes champion Southview Spirit made her Ontario debut a winning one in Monday morning's qualifying session at Mohawk Racetrack
.
With Paul MacDonell in the bike for trainer Joey Shea, the three-year-old daughter of Western Paradise-Southview Sasha sat fifth through opening panels of :29.1 and 1:00 before picking up cover from Shark Future (Sylvain Filion) through three-quarters in 1:29.3. Southview Spirit rallied off cover in the stretch and used :29.3 final frame to win by a length and a quarter in 1:59.3 over a track rated "good" and two seconds off.
Breeder Elwood Lawton of Stratford and Arleen Harris of Cornwall, P.E.I share ownership of the brown filly, who has won four of her five ATSS events this year and has yet to finish off the board in eight outings good for $31,182 in earnings.
Putting in his first qualifying start, the two-year-old Artsplace colt Willies Place and Jody Jamieson sat a two-hole trip before sprinting home in :28.4 to score by a head over Beach Royal (Sylvain Filion) in 1:59.4 for trainer Kristofer Di Cenzo. The bay was a $150,000 Lexington Select sale purchase for owner Antonio Chiaravalle of Hamilton, Ont.
Jamieson and Di Cenzo also captured a later qualifier with Chiaravalle’s A Pippin Hanover, a two-year-old Dragon Again filly purchased for $140,000 at the Lexington sale. She converted from the pocket and used a :29.3 final frame to win her first start by a quarter length over Ittakestwobaby (Matthew Dupuis) in 1:58.3.
Selfish Princess (1:59.4), Armbro Continental (1:59.1), the Joey Shea-trained two-year-old As Tuff As Nails (1:58.4), Zero Boundaries (2:01.1), Celebrity Hercules (1:59.3) and Nifty Fellow (1:57.2) were also winners during this morning’s qualifying session.
To view the charted lines from Monday's qualifiers, click here.