The Tuesday morning (Sept. 3) qualifiers at Woodbine Mohawk Park proved to be a bit of a mixed bag. During the session, a $200,000 yearling continued to tune his three-year-old season, a trio of juveniles hit the wire first in their respective tests, and an aged pacer recorded his first-ever race line on North American soil.
Race 1 was captured by Steuben Hanover, a three-year-old son of Trixton that was purchased for $200,000 as a yearling in 2017. After having been more than 10 lengths off the lead early, the bay colt ultimately came from off the tempo to notch a 1:57 victory for driver Bob McClure, trainer Luc Blais, and the Determination stable from Montreal, Que. The margin of victory was three quarters of a length.
Two-year-old qualifiers comprised races two through four.
In what was his lifetime charted debut (Race 2), the Mario Baillargeon-trained and James MacDonald-driven Sunshine N Shade (Sunshine Beach—Maid In Shade) got up in the lane to record a half-length victory in 1:58.1. The black colt is owned by Thestable Sunshine Nshade, of Guelph, Ont.
Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots winner Poseidon Seelster (Sunshine Beach—Porsche Seelster) captured Race 3, as the freshman colt reeled in the leader from the two-hole and won by open lengths for driver Bob McClure and trainer Matt Dupuis. The five-length victory was clocked in 1:56.
Shes Kadabra Cool (Kadabra—Cool Creek Breeze) was the last of the two-year-old winners during the session, as the bay filly captured Race 4 with a wire-to-wire, 2:01.4 victory for driver Sylvain Filion and trainer Scott McEneny. The clocking went down as a new qualifying mark for the filly.
Justice Hall gelding Stormont Ventor continued to prep for his four-year-old campaign in Race 7, as the bay got up from third in the final quarter to record a 1:56.2 win for trainer Kevin Benn and driver Phil Hudon. The margin of victory was two and three-quarter lengths.
The final contest of the session (Race 8) was the North American charted debut of six-year-old Mach Three gelding Big Mach N, who has made 51 Down Under starts over the course of his career. Owner Travis Cullen (of Dundas, Ont.) was at Big Mach N’s lines, and the duo showed an early and late move on the front end before notching a half-length victory in 1:54. Big Mach N is trained by Jodie Cullen.
To view the harness racing results for the Tuesday qualifying session at Mohawk, click the following link: Tuesday Results – Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers).