Maryland powered home to take all the spoils in the Mohawk Million, putting an exclamation point on a stellar Saturday stakes night at Woodbine Mohawk Park for driver Dexter Dunn.
After taking the inside track, literally, to impressive victories in the $347,000 Elegantimage (with three-year-old trotting filly French Champagne) and $713,000 Canadian Trotting Classic (with three-year-old trotting colt Amazing Catch), Dunn engineered a different trip, but produced the same result, in the $1 million Mohawk Million for two-year-old trotters.
Meshuggah (Scott Zeron) blasted off the wings and took the lead heading into the first turn, followed by Lookatmegoamigo (Jody Jamieson), Go Ahead Makemyday (David Miller) and Lasting Dream (Bob McClure), while Maryland sat an unfettered sixth through an opening panel in :27.1.
It was status quo on the front end through a half in a tepid :56.2, as Dunn continued to hold a patient hand on the 4-5 choice, positioned seventh at that point.
Meshuggah was still on top through three-quarters in 1:24.3, as Lasting Dream looked to ratchet up the pressure. Monalishi (James MacDonald) arrived on the scene in third, while Maryland, improving to fourth, was five lengths off the leader, but full of trot and rolling to the outside.
Maryland, whose slot owner for the Million was Hunterton Farm, began to methodically pick off his rivals down the lane, blasting to the front with ease en route to a sharp 3-1/2-length score after a :27.1 final quarter. Lasting Dream was second, Meshuggah third, Onajetplane (Andrew McCarthy) fourth and Emoticon Legacy (Louis-Philippe Roy) fifth.
The final time was a stakes, track and Canadian record of 1:52.3.
Maryland bested the former track and Canadian record for two-year-old male trotters set by 2017 William Wellwood Memorial winner Alarm Detector by one-fifth of a second.
“He was pretty aggressive tonight,” said Dunn when asked about gapping the gate tonight. “He hasn't really been like that before and the horse outside was pretty fired up on the gate too and there was a bit going on, but we had a little bobble there before the gate left, but he luckily kept his gait. We still got away in a pretty decent position, and just around the last turn, I nearly lost him there for a bit, but he got himself up.
“I was still confident, especially coming off the last turn, and he was close enough that he's fast enough.”
For the son of Chapter Seven-Crucial, who won the $575,000 William Wellwood Stakes on Aug. 24 and the $527,027 Peter Haughton Memorial on Sept. 13, it was the third straight command performance and biggest payday of his career.
“He’s probably the smartest colt I've been around,” said trainer Marcus Melander, who also won the 2022 Mohawk Million with Oh Well. “He wants to do his work. Then, you never know how much the other horses have left, but if he has the position to win when they're turning from home, he’ll win.”
With Saturday’s win, Maryland is now 4-1-1 from seven starts, to go along with nearly $1.1 million in lifetime earnings.
“I think pretty much when he was racing at the Meadowlands early, he just showed so much talent,” said Steve Stewart of Hunterton Farm. “And that last sixteenth [of a mile], he always just seems to accelerate. There was one race early that I think a horse came up on him and it looked like he was going to go right by him, and he just wouldn't let him go, and it seems like he's very versatile.
“Marcus has been saying that the one thing that separates him from a lot of horses is he's so intelligent.”
Maryland, owned by Courant Inc., PCW Racing, Holly Lane Stud East and Sstewartrthorn Stable, will head home to the Garden State the newly minted Million champion.
"We will ship him back home to New Jersey and prepare him for the Breeders Crown, since he won last week and he's already eligible for the finals,” noted Melander. “So, that will be his next race, probably. Maybe, we'll do a qualifier in between, but that's what we're waiting for right now.”
Bred by Hanover Shoe Farms, the bay colt, who won his debut at The Meadowlands on June 28, was a $475,000 purchase at the 2023 Lexington Select Yearling Sale.
Maryland paid $3.90 for the win.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(With files from Woodbine)