Woodbine Mohawk Park: Ardonne seeks to keep beating the odds in Wellwood elims

Each fall top owners and trainers canvas the yearling sales in pursuit of the next great trotter. It's inevitable that their paths cross and bidding wars ensue. In the end the belief is that the bluebloods with the best pedigrees and confirmation will rise the following year and become the champions.

Thankfully, for those competing with the richest of the rich, there is hope that some of those "less expensive" horses will find a way between the cracks of the yearling market and the racing wars to emerge and prove more than capable of competing of beating horses perceived "better" than them just months earlier.

Such is the case for Ardonne, a $37,000 yearling purchased at last year's Lexington Selected sale by trainer Megan Scran, who didn't show up at Lexington with a six- or seven-figure budget but something on the low end of five. Ardonne, a son of Tactical Landing, was surrounded by high-priced horses in Kentucky last year and has spent the better part of his first four races competing favorably against those in New Jersey. Most recently, Ardonne was barely beaten by a head in the $225,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes final at the Meadowlands on Hambletonian Day (August 2). On Friday he'll see action for the first time since in one of two C$30,000 eliminations (race six) for the William Wellwood Memorial at Woodbine Mohawk Park, again hoping to knock off another blueblood in the process.

"He's feeling great," said Megan Scran on her way north on Tuesday (August 12) in advance of Friday's contest. "We gave him a couple of days off after the Sire Stakes final, but he was feeling good and ready to go when we got him back on the track."

Scran doesn't talk about the odds of getting where Ardonne has gotten thus far, but it's worth noting just how uncommon Ardonne's presence in the New Jersey Sire Stakes final was, and the extraordinary power he ran into in the Sire Stakes races. Of the 10 finalists in the colt and gelding division, seven sold for more than $185,000 (one of the 10 was a homebred). Race winner Apex was a $525,000 yearling and half of the field sold for prices more than $300,000.

"He was a good-training horse from the start," Scran said of Ardonne. "After I would train him each week, I kept telling (boyfriend Scott Zeron) I hope he doesn't break my heart."

► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter

As Ardonne got closer to the races there was a chance that might happen, and one Scran wasn't willing to accept at the time. “The last two times I trained him getting ready for his first baby race he made breaks, and I just didn't want to take any chances, so we put the trotting hobbles on him," said Scran. "I don't think he really needs them and hopefully he'll outgrow them."

On Friday, Ardonne need only finish in the top five of the seven-horse field to qualify for the August 23 final, but a win wouldn't look bad following three second-place finishes in four career starts while racing exclusively in the New Jersey Sire Stakes.

"I'm not making any changes," said Scran. "I think he'll be fine over the Mohawk surface."

While Ardonne was handled carefully so not to get him too hot in the first few legs of the Sire Stakes races, Zeron had no issues overcoming post six in the final with a solid gate move that had him in control at the quarter before relinquishing the lead. Unfortunately, Ardonne would get pinned to the pylons when the leader caved in prematurely and Apex and Dexter Dunn would move to the front. Ardonne did find room in mid-stretch and closed valiantly go come up short, missing a head and trotting in 1:53 2/5. That time is faster than any of his rivals have gone in Friday's Wellwood but means little with many trainers trying to have their horses peaking for the summer classics.

Ardonne will meet another rather expensive horse in Cambridge Hanover on Friday. The $1 million yearling purchase by trainer Andrew Harris' connections happens to be a three-quarter brother to last year's Mohawk Million and Wellwood Memorial champion Maryland. Cambridge Hanover side-stepped the New Jersey Sire Stakes but showed some promise with a third-place finish in a leg of the Kindergarten at the Meadowlands on August 1. Cambridge Hanover landed post five.

The Wellwood is always a showcase for top Ontario-breds and recent Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series winner Crunchintheodds (post one) has experience over the track and a 1:54 2/5 career-best taken in that August 7 conquest.

Trainer Ake Svanstedt's stable has been red-hot following his Nordic Catcher S' win in the Hambletonian just a few weeks ago. He'll send out Magic Punk (post one) in the first Wellwood elimination (race three). The colt by Wishing Stone hails from a family that Svanstedt has had enormous success with in the past. Magic Punk's dam is a sister to the dam of Plunge Blue Chip, who has career earnings of more than $1.5 million and a sub-1:50 record. Magic Punk captured a Kindergarten division in 1:54 on August 1 at the Meadowlands.

Trainer Shawn Steacy will send out Greenarrow Hanover, a gelded son of Greenshoe that captured the Millard Farms Series final over this surface on August 4. With two wins in his three career starts, Greenarrow Hanover faces a tougher test from post four.

Scran has been in the big dances before at Woodbine Mohawk Park, with Tactical Mounds racing there in the Armbro Flight last year and Crantini an entrant in the 2022 Mohawk Million, but Ardonne is a first of sorts.

"He's the first one that I picked out myself and trained down as a 2-year-old," said Scran.

As for why she picked him out among what she had to choose in Lexington last year, she said, "I saw that Ake (Svanstedt) bought the first foal out of the mare for a lot of money ($140,000) and that horse had won his only start."

As it turned out, had Mr Mouton, Ardonne's older brother, shown anywhere near the kind of speed as a 2-year-old he displayed in capturing a Kentucky Championship Series event on August 4 in 1:50 1/5 at The Red Mile, there's a strong likelihood a trainer with deeper pockets would be sending him out on Friday night and not Scran. Fortunately for her and owner Phillip Steinberg, the timing couldn't have been more ideal.