Woodbine Mohawk Park: Baroness Hill breaks through in OSS Gold Series

Baroness Hill cemented her status as one to watch in the Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) this season with an impressive gate-to-wire victory in the first of two C$101,300 OSS Gold divisions for 3-year-old trotting fillies tonight at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Doug McNair took the Chantal Mitchell trainee straight to the front from post three and led the field through fractions of 28 3/5, 58 1/5, and 1:27. Entering the stretch Paul MacDonell moved odds-on favorite Muscling Vegas (Muscle Mass) out from the pocket to challenge Baroness Hill, but she proved too strong, crossing the wire in a new lifetime mark of 1:54 2/5 for her biggest win to date.

"Chantal made a couple of changes, and she was he was perfect tonight," said McNair. "Once we got away from the gate, she was all trot tonight."

The talented filly made quite the impression in her two starts as freshman, but she had struggled throughout the spring, making two breaks in a qualifier and failing to hit the board in her first three starts.

"She'd kind of been knuckling over behind and just throwing money out the window," said McNair. "She is real fast, and high speed, and has tons of manners. Like I said I don't understand why she had been running. She showed tonight she can go fine."

Owner Tom Hill, who purchased the Kadabra filly for $260,000 as a yearling at the 2021 Standardbred Horse Sale, was happy to see his star pupil take this step forward.

"You just need to look at the paperwork. She is bred to be a champion, and she looks like a champion," said Hill. "She's starting to get what she's got to do now, and when she finds out what she's got to do, she's as good of a filly as what's in Ontario."

The win tripled Baroness Hill's career earnings to C$78,170, and she paid $9.50 for the win.

Muscling Vegas moved over the C$125,000 mark with the runner-up finish to go with her SBOA victory earlier this season. MacDonell trains the filly for owners Chris and Michael Storms. Rounding out the top three was Winooksi, with Tyler Jones driving for his father Dustin, who trains and owns the Royalty For Life filly.

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The second division was won by 3-5 favorite HP Extra Ice, who showed serious speed in the back-half of her 1:53 2/5 win.

A trio battled for the lead early, with Sweet Detrmination and McNair emerging from the pack to lead the field through soft fractions of 28 1/5 and 58 2/5. Then, James MacDonald pressed go from fourth on HP Extra Ice, an Alarm Detector filly who charged to the front in a 27 4/5 third panel, and was in cruise control down the stretch, with the plugs still in as she crossed the line five lengths clear of Enola and Tyler Borth.

"She is learning to be a racehorse," said trainer Ben Baillargeon. "Before, we couldn't pull down the backside because she thought the race was over. Now, she knows the race is one mile, and she is all business."

HP Extra Ice is the second OSS Gold winner from Alarm Detector's freshman crop of just eight foals, and she now has over C$135,000 in earnings despite not racing as a 2-year-old. Baillargeon co-owns the filly with Claude Hamel and Santo and Nunzio Vena.

Enola (Resolve) picked up the biggest check of her career with the second-place finish, and the Keith Jones trainee improved her record to 3-8-4 from 20 starts, with over C$100,000 on her card for owner Douglas McCarthy.

The final podium finisher of the evening was Sweet Detrmination for trainer Patrick Lang, who co-owns the filly with Dewitt Stables. The Lookslikeachpnale filly now has over C$180,000 in OSS earnings.

--press release (OSS)--