Cross Of Lorraine defeated her rivals in the $130,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold final equaling the Mohawk Racetrack track record and Canadian record for three-year-old trotting fillies in 1:52.4
.
The mile equaled Action Broadway’s time established earlier this year in her division of the Casual Breeze Stakes. The time is also a new Ontario Sires Stakes record eclipsing Brigham Dream's 1:53.4 record for sophomore trotting fillies.
Driver Jody Jamieson left hard with the daughter of Angus Hall-Katya Hanover from Post 5 and quickly established early command before the first turn.
Emmylou Who (Lyle MacArthur) protected rail position and was able to position herself second with Angostura (Paul MacDonell) third as Cross Of Lorraine took her rivals past an opening quarter of :26.4.
Cross Of Lorraine and Jamieson then put up middle half fractions of: 56.2 and 1:24.1 with Emmylou Who stalking the leader.
As the field marched for home, Cross Of Lorraine was challenged late by Emmylou Who but held her off in the final strides. Random Destiny (Riina Rekila) came from well off the pace to finish third.
“It’s always easy to blame the trainer but it was my fault last week, I rated her to slow. I turned the race into a sprint and Trevor [Ritchie] out-sprinted me coming home,” Jamieson commented in the winner's circle.
“I told everyone in the driver's room tonight that if they left it was going to be a long night for them because she can leave in :26 if I want her to. It would have been nice to have her in the Hambletonian Oaks last week but she’s got a lot of races ahead and she got a nice payday here tonight,” Jamieson stated.
With the victory, Cross Of Lorraine lifted her career earnings to $292,052 for trainer Carl Jamieson and co-owners Thomas Kyron of Toronto and Hope Johnson or London, ON.
She paid $3.60 as the heavy favourite.
In regular racing action, Major Hottie ($5.40) got the job done in this week’s $42,000 Open Pace after missing by just a head in his last outing two weeks ago to Bigtime Ball, who was absent from tonight’s event.
Lucky Man crossed over from Post 6 to set up shop on the front end during a :25.2 opening quarter with 8-5 favourite Major Hottie and Chris Christoforou following in the pocket.
Lucky Man raced to the half in :54.3 and three-quarters in 1:22.1 before Major Hottie pulled the pocket in the stretch and got up just in time for the 1:49.1 victory by a neck. Ramegade Bruiser (Rick Zeron) was third.
The victory was Major Hottie’s eighth in 24 starts and bumped his earnings to $206,740 for the year. The five-year-old son of Art Major-Dominatricks is trained by Steve Charlton and owned by Larocque Racing Stable Inc. of Thornhill, ON. Lifetime, he has won 17 times earning $362,567 along the way.
To view Saturday’s results, click here.
(With files from WEG)