Georgian Downs: Fashion Frenzie defends Honourable Earl Rowe Memorial title

Fashion Frenzie won the C$100,000 Honourable Earl Rowe Memorial at Ontario's Georgian Downs for the second consecutive year, taking the 2023 edition, which took place on Sunday night, in 1:53 flat.

There was a big scramble for the early lead and then a few breakers on the first turn, too. One of the horses that went off-stride was second choice Logan Park (Doug McNair), who was caught on the outside of a three-wide duel for the front with 63-1 shot Franks Angel (Jason Ryan) and Fashion Frenzie (Louis-Philippe Roy). When the dust settled Franks Angel was on top in a 27 second opening quarter, but Roy had no interest in sitting behind the longshot with the 1-5 favorite and planted him on the engine past that station.

It turned into a rather facile job for Fashion Frenzie from there as he backed down the middle-half fractions of 56 2/5 at the half and 1:25 at three-quarters, then trotted a final panel of 28 seconds to defeat Oney Hall (Trevor Henry) by by three lengths. Warrawee Xenia (Bob McClure) finished in the third position.

"I was kind of trying to get Jason behind me. I didn't mind following Logan Park, but I didn't want to have to re-move from the three-hole because you never know. Doug would have had the big control in the race there," Roy remarked. "We were going pretty fast in the turn, so [Logan Park] made a little miscue, and from there, not to say that I was 100 percent confident, but most of the challenge of the race was kind of done for my horse. The rest, he just sailed home and was good.

"Winning with Fashion Frenzie is always nice. It's one of my buddy's horses, and we've been pretty lucky. He's over a million made now."

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Richard Moreau trains Fashion Frenzie, a 5-year-old gelding by Archangel, for Quebec-based owners Ecurie Francis Richard Inc., Mario Bourgea, Pierre Guillemette and Sylvain Richard. This was his 22nd win from 34 lifetime tries, and he has now pocketed C$1,085,431 and paid $2.50 to win.