Odds-on favourites lived up to their billing in Tuesday's (June 26) Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Gold events for three-year-old trotting colts and geldings at Woodbine Mohawk Park, with both Stormont Ventnor and Run Director converting in their respective $97,200 divisions.
Fresh off a runner-up effort to Wolfgang in the $266,000 Goodtimes, Stormont Ventnor ($3.40) used a gradual ascent to claim a mid-race lead which he would not relinquish for a 1:54.2 score in the second of two OSS splits of the night (race 6). Phil Hudon floated the gelded son of Justice Hall into mid field on approach to the first turn before engaging early pacesetter Mister Magic (Per Henriksen) with three-eighths of the one-mile race elapsed.
Stormont Ventnor accelerated to clear nearing a :57.3 half-mile split before facing — and parrying — first-over engagement from Jula Downton (Louis-Philippe Roy) on the far turn. Digging in to hold his ground past three-quarters in 1:25.4, Stormont Ventnor was kept to task through the final eighth to stave off a belated stand-side rally from Perfetto (Trevor Henry) by 1-1/2 lengths. Mister Magic, who briefly reclaimed second in mid-stretch, was collared for the runner-up spot in the final strides.
Kevin Benn trains 4-time winner Stormont Ventnor for owner-breeder Eric Baker. Last year’s two-year-old Grassroots champion but does not have any other open stakes engagements on his schedule this summer.
“He just has pretty much the Sires Stakes now. We paid him into the Goodtimes just in case he stepped up to be a Goodtimes horse, which he did,” said trainer Kevin Benn with a chuckle. “But we didn’t pay him into anything else.”
In the earlier division (race 4), Run Director ($2.40) drafted behind a pair of speedy leavers before brushing up the far side en route to a decisive 1:55 victory, the second of his career. After yielding to the longshot pair of Henderson Seelster (Bob McClure) and Tinas Mattjesty (Dagfin Henriksen) on approach to the clubhouse turn, Sylvain Filion angled Run Director off the pegs with eleven-sixteenths of the one-mile journey remaining. The son of Kadabra floated to a clear lead past a :58.1 half mile and faced nary a challenge after seizing control.
Run Director edged away willingly after completing three-quarters in 1:27.3, handily opening up 4-1/4 lengths of clearance through a :27.2 closing sectional. Tinas Mattjesty angled out in mid-stretch to narrowly claim second from Henderson Seelster.
Run Director, a Thomas and Elizabeth Rankin homebred, is trained by Benoit Baillargeon. It was the second career win in eight tries for Run Director, who was a runner-up to Jula Downton in his previous Ontario Sires Stakes event this season. Rankin noted that Run Director did more than just collect an Ontario Sires Stakes blanket and a share of the $97,200 Gold division purse.
“I named him after this lady, Mary Ann Edwards, she is our run director. We have a run for cancer and we’ve made $8.5 million in the last 13 years — we made $1.05 million this year — and she’s the dynamic person behind it,” explained owner-breeder Tom Rankin. “So I’m very happy for her, I named the horse after her.”
The Rankin Cancer Run, which was founded by Edwards and supported from the start by Rankin Construction, is held annually in St. Catharines and is unique in that all of the money raised remains in the community. With his first stakes win Run Director paid a fitting tribute to Edwards and the impact that the run has had on cancer care in the Niagara Region.
Run Director’s victory was also meaningful for the Rankins because he is a fourth generation product of their breeding program. Tom and his wife Elizabeth acquired the colt’s great-grandmother Armbro Mink in 1992 and the mare and her offspring have given the St. Catharine’s residents nine $100,000-plus winners over the last 26 years.
“We’ve had some good horses out of the family, but this guy might be the best,” stated Rankin, adding that he was a little nervous before the race after watching his US-bred colt Alarm Detector make a costly break in a stake race in Pennsylvania on Saturday. “Tonight I’m on pins and needles after one horse makes a break — and he went off as the second favourite. You never know in horse racing.”
In the night's $34,000 Preferred Trot (race 9), Dancer Hall ($5.80, Filion) earned his fourth win in five starts, taking control up the backstretch and controlling soft middle fractions of :57.2 and 1:26.3 before unleashing a :26.3 closing panel to ice his 13th career win in 1:53.1. Warrawee Roo (McClure) narrowly held off Emoticon Hanover (James MacDonald) for the runner-up spot.
Paul Reid trains Dancer Hall, a four-year-old Deweycheatumnhowe entire, for 1187422 Ontario Inc.
To view Tuesday's harness racing results, click the following link: Tuesday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(with quotes from OSS)