He's owned two pacing millionaires, but Quebec businessman Daniel Plouffe hasn't had much luck with trotters
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That could change Saturday in the $783,042 Hambletonian Oaks at the Meadowlands Racetrack, where his three-year-old filly Ok To Play looks like a serious contender off her commanding 1:53.3 victory in one of the four eliminations. She'll have Post 3 for the final.
"Dan (Dube, the driver) called me after the Adios (which he won with Vintage Master) and I told him 'drive her like she's the best'," said Plouffe, 50. "We knew she had speed. She just needed luck."
He and longtime friend Jean-Claude Dessureault paid $105,000 (U.S.) for Ok To Play as a yearling.
They picked Marcus Johansson as trainer, on the recommendation of Dube and Michel Lachance, "because we wanted a trotting trainer whose stable wasn't so big she'd just be a number."
Owner of about two dozen horses, including successful Ontario/Australia sire Blissfull Hall and retired pacing mare Marnie Hall (now in foal to Somebeachsomewhere), Plouffe watched the Oaks elimination from his home in Bedford, Que., but plans to be at The Meadowlands on Saturday.
"I've watched the replays of all the heats," he said, "and I think we have as much chance as anyone."
(Trot Insider exclusive by Paul Delean)