Woodbine Mohawk Park: Chestnut Hill pulls 60-1 upset in Canadian Trotting Classic

Chestnut Hill rode the rail, switched paths outside and inside in the lane, carefully navigated around a breaking Ready For Moni in the last eighth, and got up to post a 60-1 stunner in the C$560,000 Canadian Trotting Classic final for 3-year-old colt and gelding trotters on Saturday night at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Driven by Andrew McCarthy, Chestnut Hill took back to the sixth position from post three and watched as Threefiftytwo (Bob McClure) and Beyond Kronos (Trevor Henry) fired out hardest. Threefiftytwo got to the top first, and when Beyond Kronos made a break on the opening turn, Threefiftytwo was able to put the 27 4/5 quarter on the board. His lead wouldn't last, though, as Ready For Moni (Yannick Gingras) was two-wide and pressing on, and he cleared in the backstretch.

After taking over, Ready For Moni and Gingras backed down the half to just 56 4/5, and when a first-over Play Trix On Me (Jody Jamieson) wasn't able to make a great deal of headway on the final turn, Gingras was able to get to three-quarters with the favorite in just 1:25. Meanwhile, Chestnut Hill had elected to sit in on the cones and remained in sixth with a quarter of a mile left to go.

Ready For Moni turned into the lane first and continued on a clear lead through the stretch drive, but just inside the last eighth of a mile, he rolled into a break, throwing the race wide-open. Threefiftytwo, Play Trix On Me, and HP Royal Theo (Louis-Philippe Roy) loomed large two-wide, three-wide, and four-wide, respectively, but Chestnut Hill, who tipped out to get around Sky Castles early in the lane and then back to the cones, squeezed around the off-stride Ready For Moni and surged by Play Trix On Me to get the win by half a length in 1:53 2/5. HP Royal Theo crossed the wire in third but was on the run in doing so, and he was moved back to sixth after an inquiry. That elevated Jula Trix Treasure (Chris Christoforou) up from fourth to third, Threefiftytwo from fifth to fourth, and Hayek (Sylvain Filion) from sixth to fifth.

"I've been watching this horse down (in the United States), and he has been sneaky good. His last two or three starts he's been very good. I ended up in a spot that I wasn't too happy about heading into the last turn, but it worked out where I got to shake him out and sneak him back up the inside there," remarked McCarthy. "I kind of yelled out and just let Yannick know there was someone on the inside of him, and it worked out where he heard me and didn't want to crash into me. He did a good job getting that horse out of the way safely, and it worked out good for me that I got to sneak up there.

"I don't think I've driven the horse before, but I've obviously raced against him enough that I know he's got the ability to do some good in races like this. It's unfortunate for the connections of Ready For Moni, who fell apart tonight, but it worked out for us."

Nifty Norman trains Chestnut Hill, a Muscle Hill colt, for co-owners/breeders Mel Hartman and David McDuffee and co-owner Little E LLC. Chestnut Hill picked up his fifth career win, and he has now earned C$614,713. He paid $122.90 to win.