Woodbine Mohark Park: Kinnder Hotblood upsets in OSS Gold Mid-Season final
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Kinnder Hotblood, a 52-1 shot, surprised the favorites in the C$150,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Mid-Season final for 3-year-old filly trotters on Saturday night at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
1-2 favorite R Liza (Sylvain Filion) led through opening-half fractions of 28 1/5 and 57 3/5 but had to pick up the tempo to 1:25 1/5 at three-quarters to repel a first-over challenge from first-over Willys Home Run (Doug McNair). Watching all that from the pocket was Kinnder Hotblood (Matthew Bax) and after Willys Home Run faded, Bax had space to tip his charge to the outside in the lane.
R Liza was game all the way to the wire and dug in under Filion urging, but Kinnder Hotblood nailed her at the wire, prevailing by a head in a career-best clocking of 1:54 flat. Valuable Miss (Brett MacDonald) rallied from last to third in the final panel, followed by P L Rainbow Dash (Bob McClure) and Love Those Legs (Chris Christoforou).
"I was kind of racing for third. I knew those two fillies (R Liza and Willys Home Run) were really nice," Bax said after the race. "I knew she was really good going into this race and had a good shot, but maybe not that good of a shot."
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A daughter of Kadabra bred by Northfields Farm Inc. and Glenn Bechtel, Kinnder Hotblood is trained by Bax for owners Bax Stable, David Hudson, Gaelic Stable 2 and The Cavalier Stable. She has six wins from 14 starts, has pocketed C$148,903 and paid $106.00 to win.
There were also two C$95,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series events for 2-year-old pacing fillies on the program, and favorites Wicked N Single (Jonathan Drury, 1:53 3/5, paid $3.50 to win) and Wickedpace (Doug McNair, 1:52 3/5, paid $3.90 to win), both sired by McWicked, were victorious.
Wicked N Single, a homebred for trainer Tony Beaton and partner David Mercer, has won both of her starts and has earned C$70,922, and Wickedpace, a Winbak Farm-bred, has two wins and a second and has put away C$59,500 in three appearances for co-owner/trainer Paul Cameron and co-owners Jayme Cameron and Arnolds Horse Shack.