His rivals took a run at him on Friday night, but three-year-old pacing colt Century Farroh proved up to the challenge and wrapped up the Gold Series regular season with a perfect record of five wins in five starts.
Bronx Seelster pressed Century Farroh through Woodbine Mohawk Park’s opening turn, challenging the division leader for the early lead, but Century Farroh refused to cede his Post 1 advantage and led the field of seven to a :27 opening quarter. After allowing Century Farroh to cruise to a :55.3 half Stag Party mounted a serious challenge heading for the 1:23 three-quarters and the colts turned for home neck-and-neck. However, driver Sylvain Filion simply asked Century Farroh for another gear and the fan favourite pulled away to a three-quarter length victory in 1:50. Bronx Seelster closed to be second and Stag Party finished third.
“I was very impressed with Casie’s (Coleman) horse tonight (Stag Party). He took a run at him, and kept going too, and so did Bronx Seelster in the first turn and in the stretch, but he’s just a very determined animal. He fights them off,” said Century Farroh’s trainer Dr. Ian Moore. “I hope we can get one more. That’s the one that really counts, the Super Final.”
Cambridge, ON resident Moore trains Century Farroh for Ratchford Stables NS of North Sydney, NS. Trainer and owner now face the task of mapping out the colt’s schedule leading up to the $225,000 Gold Series Super Final at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Saturday, Oct. 12.
“There’s probably only going to be one race, I would say, in the four weeks,” said Moore. “It could be next week (Sept. 20) in Hoosier in the Jennas Beach Boy or it would probably have to be an overnight here. You have to supplement him to Hoosier, so we might, and then he won’t race until the Super Final. He’s been off before and he seems to do well on it. He had almost two weeks here too.”
The $150,000 Jennas Beach Boy at Harrah’s Hoosier Park in Indiana requires a $12,500 (US) supplement to make Century Farroh eligible. The same situation exists for the Breeders Crown in late October at Woodbine Mohawk Park and the Matron Pace and Progress Pace in late November at Dover Downs should Moore and the Ratchfords choose to extend the Mach Three colt’s season beyond the Super Final.
“At this point in time with any horse really it’s week-to-week basically, when you get near the end of the season. I mean he started training back in late January I believe, early February, so it’s been a long old road,” said Moore. “Mr. Ratchford has already stated — he’s had numerous offers again recently and also stallion offers too — he’s already stated that he wants to race him as a four-year-old, so if he does then you’ve got to take care of them a little bit. So it will be week-to-week and we’ll keep going until he shows signs that he’s had enough. Good horses always show you that. Shadow Play told me when it was time to stop with him and this guy will too.”
Shadow Play would earn a total of $1.5 million in his racing career, retiring to stallion duty in 2009 after his four-year-old season. The horse is just one of several notable pacers that have resided in the Moore stable in the last two decades and while Century Farroh has not had the same stakes opportunities as some of his predecessors the trainer still ranks him among the top performers.
“He’s a horse that loves his work, he loves his business, and he’s a very, very determined animal,” said Moore. “I’ve had the good fortune of being associated with a lot of good horses over the last 15 years I’ve been doing this and he’s right up there with all of them, that’s for sure.”
Following in the footsteps of their older peers, the two-year-old pacing colts will wrap up their Grassroots season at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Monday, Sept. 16, competing in Races 3, 4, 7 and 9 on the program, which gets under way at 7:10 p.m.
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To view results for Friday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Friday Results – Woodbine Mohawk Park.