Ghostly Casper made every pole a winning one as he captured the third leg of the Ontario Sires Stakes Gold for three-year-old colt and gelding trotters on Monday (Aug. 14) at Grand River Raceway.
Sylvain Filion and the Ben Baillargeon trainee left sharply from post six, as did six other classmates as they went into the first turn. Two breakers shuffled the horses from the outer posts while Lookslikagoodfella (Pat Hudon) opened up on the field. Favoured Ghostly Casper was relentless and passed Lookslikagoodfella by three-quarters of a length heading into the first quarter in :28.1. Ghostly Casper cleared the front along the pylons and handed out remaining panels in :56.4 and 1:26 before stepping off to a 4-1/4 length achievement in 1:54.4. The Hazelton (Bob McClure) finished second with Oh Look Magic (James MacDonald) rounding out the top three.
Baillargeon co-owns the sophomore Resolve-Cool Creek Breeze colt with Teresa Davidson, Santo Vena and Nunzio Vena. This season, Ghostly Casper has banked $198,965 and earned his three career tallies, including two in OSS Gold action. A winner of $415,759, the colt now has a record of 3-7-4 in 22 starts.
The time of the mile established a new track record for three-year-old trotting colts, eclipsing the 1:56.3 mark of Sass from 2016. The overall trotting mark of 1:53.3 was set by sophomore trotting gelding Hayek in 2020.
To view Monday's harness racing results, click the following link: Monday Results - Grand River Raceway.