The 2024 Somebeachsomewhere Horse of the Year is set to make her highly-anticipated first appearance of 2025.
After taking centre stage at the 2024 O'Brien Awards this past February, Chantilly and her connections will once again have the spotlight on them this Friday, April 25 during the morning session of qualifiers at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
During her freshman season, the daughter of Big Jim - Shiraz Seelster ran the board for trainer Nick Gallucci, driver James MacDonald and breeder-owner Millar Farms. The homebred concluded her rookie season with a dominant score in the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final, winning by 6-1/2 lengths while stopping the clock in 1:50.2 to match her lifetime mark and lift her seasonal bankroll to $761,000 in earnings.
Those two-year-old accomplishments prompted owner George Millar to consider and subsequently follow through on making Chantilly eligible to the 2025 Pepsi North America Cup, potentially setting up an unprecedented appearance against male rivals in Canada's premier pacing event
"Do I think she’d go with [the boys]? I don’t think she’d be embarrassed… And it would make for a nice story,” said Millar last month. "I don’t want to hurt her, but I don’t think it would hurt her… You can pay up and if you think you’re just not right or whatever, then you can just not enter. I think she just took care of herself all year and the fact that she wasn’t over raced really helped her out quite a bit."
Chantilly is one of 64 sophomores eligible to the 2025 Pepsi North America Cup after the March 15 sustaining payment.
(Standardbred Canada)