O’Brien Award winner Elusive Desire put in her first charted line of the season for trainer Mike Keeling in the first qualifier on Monday morning at Mohawk Racetrack
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With Paul MacDonell at the lines, Elusive Desire sat a pocket trip behind the Richard Moreau-trained Distinction winner, Saskia Lavictoire and driver Sylvain Filion, before using a :28.3 closing quarter to win in 1:58.1 by two and three-quarter lengths.
The three-year-old daughter of Angus Hall compiled a record reading 3-6-2 in 14 starts earning $395,904 last year. She ended her two-year-old campaign with three back-to-back wins including a dominant performance in the $300,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final at Woodbine Racetrack.
“It was a very nice mile and the earplugs are still in," Keeling told the WEG Media Department. "We have a Trillium on Sunday, May 24 (at Windsor Raceway) that we’re thinking of taking her down to. We’ll see how she comes out of this, and I’ll talk to Paul (MacDonell) because he’s a big player in this. We want to do what’s right for her. I want to race her against her own kind and the Trillium looks good for that. She should be very competitive. I just don’t want to stress her too much the first couple of starts – she’s got a big June coming up. We want to get a couple of starts in, and then the Casual Breeze and the Elegantimage.
“She’s got a pretty relaxed attitude, but with an Angus Hall you kind of want to keep her that way – the more relaxed she is the better off she is.”
Also making her sophomore debut in the first qualifier was Stonebridge Diva, an OSS Gold and Champlain Stakes champion who earned $191,934 as a freshman. Driven by Randy Waples for Gro Formia, the Angus Hall filly came from off the pace to finish 17 lengths back in third clocking her mile in 2.01.3.
In the fourth of the six contests this morning, two North America Cup hopefuls made encore qualifying appearances. Ohio import, J Cruise, turned in a sharp 1:53.4 effort and led wire-to-wire for driver Luc Ouellette, while Manhattan Blue Chip improved on last week’s effort (where he went off-stride), pacing home second in 1:55.0 with Randy Waples at the controls for Mark Austin.
“That was pretty much the trip we wanted for him today,” Clarksburg, Ohio trainer Dan Ater said of his charge, J Cruise. “We won’t know till we start him if he’s good enough to go in the North America Cup – we hope he is, but if not he’ll go back to Ohio and race there. We’re hoping he’s this calibre of horse though. He had surgery last year for chips in three joints so his racing was very limited, but he’s shown us a lot of ability, so we’re going to press on to the Burlington (June 13) and then decide.”
Other qualifying winners in this morning’s session included Michelle My Gal (Sylvain Filion/Jean-Louis Arsnenault, 1:58.4), Duded Up (Chris Christoforou/Ira Fisher, 1:57.2), Ruff Me Up (Mark MacDonald/Casie Coleman, 1:55.2), and World Stage (Jim Ritchie/Jim Ritchie, 1:58.4).
To view the complete results from Monday’s qualifying session, click here.
(With files from WEG)