Woodbine Mohawk Park hosted a handful of qualifiers on Tuesday morning, June 11 with some notable performers in action.
O'Brien Award-winning trotting filly Willys Home Run tuned up with a 1:58.4 winning qualifier, coming through down the stretch in :27.2 from fourth off a ground-saving trip for driver James MacDonald and trainer Kyle Fellows. The $600,000 earner prevailed by a neck over fellow sophomore stakes filly P L Rainbow Dash, with Flirty Dancer a length back in third. The unraced four-year-old trotting mare Last Hall led the field through fractions of :30, 1:00.4 and 1:30.3 before fading in the stretch.
Willys Home Run launched her sophomore campaign last month with a victory in the SBOA Stakes eliminations and just missed wins in the final and first Ontario Sires Stakes Gold leg last time out on May 27. The Archangel-Rite Outa The Park filly is owned by Dr. Sara Gatchell, Jake Higgs, breeder Reg Higgs and Yolanda Fellows.
The Fellows-trained three-year-old pacer Smiles For Miles, an unraced McWicked-Smileallthewayhome colt, won his first Mohawk qualifier in 1:55 flat by 5-1/4 lengths with a :27.2 final frame after an unsuccessful Grand River Raceway outing in his debut last week. Tyler Jones drove the homebred for William MacKay and David Serwatuk and their partner David Clamme.
Five-year-old trotter Safe Conduct made his season's debut a winning one in Tuesday's qualifiers after more than 11 months away from the races.
James MacDonald was in the bike as the Camilla Christoforou-trained Safe Conduct set fractions of :30, :59.4 and 1:28.3 before drawing away from first-over El Toro Loco through the lane for the 2-3/4-length victory in 1:56.2. Safe Conduct's stablemate, Spartan General, got up for second in his first qualifier of the year in rein to Chris Christoforou. Tymal Riggs finished third over El Toro Loco.
An O'Brien Award runner-up after putting together a quarter-million dollar sophomore season, Safe Conduct compiled a record reading 1-1-2 during a short eight-race campaign last year that ended on July 3. The Archangel-Safekeeping gelding is owned by breeder Charalambos Christoforou and Irvann Holdings Inc. The same connections own seven-year-old Muscle Hill gelding Spartan General, a career winner of 17 races and nearly $300,000 who last raced on Oct. 2, and his Muscle Mass sister Shrew, a maiden three-year-old who won her Tuesday qualifier in 2:01.
The fastest mile of the morning was put forth by T H McMurry as the Jeff Taylor-trained three-year-old pacer capped off a 1:52.4 mile with a :26.1 bullet for a 14-length romp. Louis-Philippe Roy drove the McWicked-Waasmula gelding, who was an OSS Gold winner as a rookie and has made five starts so far this year for Taylor and partners Siobhan Andrusek and Andrew Wright.
A replay of the video stream from the Tuesday qualifiers is available below.
To view Tuesday's complete qualifying results, click the following link: Tuesday Results (Qualifiers) - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(Standardbred Canada)