If you would have told Ben Baillargeon late last year that, come March 2009, Sakic Seelster would be the hottest trotter on the Woodbine Entertainment Group circuit, he would've looked at you like you had two heads
.
With seven wins in eight starts this year, $97,500 in purses and a mark of 1:53.1 taken last night in the Open Trot at Woodbine, Baillargeon still can't believe the way the past few months have played out with the Eager Seelster gelding.
To be completely fair to Sakic Seelster, even though the bay is coming off an unproductive four-year-old campaign, he showed everyone -- including Baillargeon -- that he had some 'go' late in his three-year-old season.
"I remember watching him win the final of an Ontario-Sired Autumn Series at Woodbine in [1:] 57 at three," Baillargeon told Trot Insider. "He looked good then, but things just didn't seem to work out for him at four, but I always remembered him."
Baillargeon explained that John Dorion, who co-owned the gelding with Santo and Nunzio Vena, got out of the partnership and Sakic Seelster eventually made his way to his barn.
After doing some blood work and allowing the gelding to get over some health issues, Baillargeon said that he stripped some equipment off Sakic Seelster, put on a Happy Bridle and let the bay go his own type of jogging trip. Afterwards, a front shoeing adjustment seemed to hit the spot for the soon-to-be upstart WEG dynamo.
"I didn't expect much from him, but he has really shown that he is quite a racehorse since coming back. As his lines show, he's the versatile type, but his stride is what really stands out. He's really slick gaited and can cover a lot of ground, even though he really isn't a big horse -- he's tall, but not that big."
The gelding went on a three-race win streak to start the year in 'non-winners' conditioned events, but that streak came to an end on February 9 when Sakic Seelster made a break as the betting favourite and finished well off the board. "Chalk that one up to me," Baillargeon told Trot Insider. "I was aware that we probably should've changed his front shoes going into the race and I didn't have it done. That's something that will not happen again."
Since the break, Sakic Seelster has won four straight in higher conditions -- the last, an open-length 1:53.1 mile against the WEG circuit's best.
"He went a [1:] 53.1 mile with :28.1 speed on the end, and Jack (driver Jack Moiseyev) told me he couldn't believe he was going that fast," Baillargeon told Trot Insider. "To me, the mile didn't surprise me at all."
Although he couldn't be happier with the way things have turned out with the gelding, Baillargeon isn't losing perspective when it comes to Sakic Seelster. That doesn't mean that the trainer doesn't have the utmost confidence in his charge.
Baillargeon explained that Sakic Seelster is only about 75 per cent healthy right now and that his blood is still a bit out of whack. He also told Trot Insider that he would not be surprised if the gelding goes out and trots a 1:51 mile at some point this year.
"He's not a good training horse and will probably have to skip some weeks of racing this year because that's just the kind of horse he is. We're looking at having him race in the Masters Series at Georgian Downs and he has been nominated to the Maple Leaf Trot at Mohawk."