A case of sibling rivalry was settled at Flamboro Downs over the weekend as a pair of Alberta-bred pacing mares got the chance to compete against each other in a race for the first time in a combined 149 career starts.
While they have started on the same program several times in the past, six-year-old Coz Im Special and five-year-old Cozey Up, full sisters by Mystery Chase out of the Dragon Again mare Cozamel, got a chance to face off for the first time in the same race during Saturday's ninth dash, a $9,500 conditioned claiming pace.
Big sis Coz Im Special asserted her dominance, leading wire-to-wire to win by four lengths in 1:55 flat for driver J Harris, with Cozey Up and Jason Ryan following in the pocket the entire mile to complete a 1-2 finish for the siblings.
Bred by James Rhodes in High River, Alta., the sisters have taken different career paths to wind up in the same stable years later.
Rick Rier of Hanover, Ont. currently owns both mares, now racing and being trained in Ontario by Shayne Barrington.
Unraced as a two-year-old, Coz Im Special has won 16 of her 84 starts lifetime while earning just shy of $180,000. Following her debut season racing in Alberta as a three-year-old, the multiple stakes-placed mare was sold early in her four-year-old year, going on to race for different stables in New York, Quebec and Ontario, where she was claimed for $31,250 last spring by Rier.
"We claimed Coz Im Special back in April of last year and she has done pretty well," Rier told Trot Insider. "We've had several horses with Shayne for a few years now and he has been very good to us. While looking for another horse to race, I came across a couple of her siblings racing in Alberta."
Rier tracked down Alberta stakes champion Cozey Up, a seven-time winner with more than $80,000 earned from 65 starts.
"I reached out to Dave Kelly [former trainer of Coz Im Special and occasional driver of Cozey Up], who was very helpful, and he put me in touch with Shelley Arsenault, who was training Cozey Up. Several replays, several pictures and a few phone calls later, we came to an agreement to purchase her."
Cozey Up joined her sister in the Barrington stable last December. But their match-up materialized inadvertently.
"They ended up in the same top class at Flamboro on Saturday as the $30,000 claimer for fillies and mares at Mohawk has not been filling. They only have a $25,000 claimer and then the next step is a $50,000, which is a little tough.
"It was neat seeing full sisters finish 1-2 for sure, but I had mixed feelings on them being in the same race. Hopefully we won't have to do that too often. I would really like to see them have racing opportunities here in Ontario."
Coz Im Special will look to carry her winning momentum into her next assignment on Friday night in the 11th race at Woodbine Mohawk Park while Cozey Up will return to Flamboro on Saturday to compete in the sixth race.
(Standardbred Canada; Photo of Cozey Up in a previous win at Mohawk)