In spite of the seven-hole and a sloppy track Daylon Magician clocked a 1:57.2 track record at Grand River Raceway last Friday, leaving fans at the Elora oval wondering what he will be able to do if the skies are clear for this Friday
night’s $130,000 Gold Final.
“He knows what he is supposed to do, and he does it so easy,” says Mary Lemon, of the gifted three-year-old trotting colt who was bred and raised at the Komoka farm she shares with her husband Dave Lemon, who is also the colt’s trainer.
“The seven-hole didn’t bother him,” she adds. “And it didn’t bother Jack (Moiseyev). He’s pretty relaxed with the horse. You couldn’t get anybody cooler.”
Moiseyev has been at the helm for all but two of Daylon Magician’s 12 starts this season, and will be back in the race bike for Friday’s Gold Final. The pair will make their bid for a third Gold Final trophy, and a seventh straight victory, from Post 3 in the ninth race, and while Moiseyev may be cool as a cucumber, Mary Lemon admits she still cannot watch the colt live.
“I have to watch inside on the TV,” admits the longtime owner and breeder. “I’m not brave enough I guess.”
The couple, and their far-flung family, enjoy watching replays of Daylon Magician’s races, and one that will be a staple in their DVD player for months to come is the colt’s triumph in the $1 million Canadian Trotting Classic Final at Mohawk Racetrack on Sept. 17. A neck victor in his elimination, Daylon Magician simply dominated the field of elite trotting colts in the final, sailing home a one and three-quarter length winner in 1:53.
“It’s just been amazing. It’s been surreal,” says Lemon. “We bred and raised his mother, and raced her, and we had his grandmother, so it’s been so special for us to watch this evolve.”
Daylon Magician’s evolution started last season when he won a Grassroots division at Hiawatha Horse Park in his first lifetime start. Moiseyev signed on for the colt’s second start, a Gold Series event at Grand River where they finished third in their elimination and sixth in the final, and has been the trotter’s linesman since.
The pair made one more start in the Grassroots program last season, then moved back up to the Gold Series and clocked an Ontario Sires Stakes record 1:57.4 at Flamboro Downs in an elimination. The colt finished second in that Gold Final and then missed the cut for the next final when he made a break in the elimination round, but capped off a promising freshman campaign with an Ontario Sires Stakes record performance in the season ending Super Final.
The son of Kadabra and $129,139 winner Daylon Marvel proved he would be a contender again this season by sweeping his elimination and the final of the season opener at Mohawk Racetrack in May. A bump off the starting gate derailed the Lemon’s hopes in the Goodtimes Elimination, but Daylon Magician was back on form in the consolation with a 1:53.3 victory. Another Gold Elimination win at Georgian Downs followed, but the colt was unable to retain his title after suffering interference in the Gold Final.
Since then, however, Daylon Magician has been unstoppable, capturing the Canadian Breeders Championship in a stakes record 1:52.3, two Gold Eliminations, one Gold Final and his elimination and the final of the Canadian Trotting Classic.
Along the way the colt has accumulated a sizeable fan club in and around Komoka, and Lemon expects some of them to be on hand for Friday’s test.
“This week there’s plans already, some of them are going,” she says. “Last week was a quiet week, I guess the rain scared them off.”
The winner of $1,070,777 will tackle a field of seven rivals on Friday, with former Gold Final winner Tamarind benefiting from the rail and last week’s runner-up Delcrest Julian getting Post 4. The three-year-old trotting colts will compete in Race 9 on Grand River Raceway’s Friday evening program, which gets under way at 7:10 p.m.
Friday evening wraps up an exceptional week of Gold Series action at the Elora oval and offers fans their last opportunity to qualify for the Ontario Sires Stakes program’s Win The Thrill contest. Prior to the Gold Final fans can enter their Win The Thrill ballot in the box of the horse they believe will emerge victorious. One ballot will be selected from each box as a finalist, and those lucky fans will earn a Grand River Raceway betting voucher and a shot at the Oct. 1 Grand Prize draw for one share in the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association’s (SBOA) New Owner Mentoring Program.
The Grand Prize draw will be held at Mohawk Racetrack on Saturday, Oct. 1 as part of the Grassroots Championships. The winner will join eight other group members and mentor Brian Webster in ownership of Ontario-sired pacing colt Bad Boy Matt, who will be trained by Cambridge resident Tony O’Sullivan in hopes of competing in the 2012-2013 Ontario Sires Stakes program.
More information about the Win The Thrill contest and the SBOA New Owners Mentoring program is available at www.ontariosiresstakes.com and www.standardbredbreeders.com. Ballots and details are available in the official Flamboro Downs program.
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To view entries for Friday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Friday Entries – Grand River Raceway.