Grand River: Ghostly Casper rolls to track record in OSS Gold Series

Ghostly Casper, who made the Hambletonian final but had to settle for a ninth-place result, returned to the Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series on Monday night at Grand River Raceway and won the C$157,200 in a track record clocking of 1:54 4/5.

Driven by Sylvain Filion, Ghostly Casper showed speed from post six and pressed on two-wide to take the top spot from Lookslikagoodfella (Pat Hudon) after the 28 1/5 opening quarter. Ghostly Casper never had an anxious moment from there as he was clear at the 56 4/5 half and 1:26 three-quarters, then slammed the door with a 28 4/5 final panel to win by 4 1/4 lengths over The Hazelton (Bob McClure). Oh Look Magic (James MacDonald) came in third.

The time lowered the previous standard for a sophomore trotting colt of 1:56 4/5 set by 2018 Hambletonian champion Forbidden Trade on September 24 of that year.

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Ben Baillargeon trains Ghostly Casper, a son of Resolve bred by Diane Ingham and Harry Rutherford, and also co-owns him with partners Teresa Davidson, Santo Vena and Nunzio Vena. Ghostly Casper made his third appearance in the winner's circle from 22 efforts, has now stashed away C$415,759 and paid $3.80 to win as the favorite.