Woodbine Mohawk Park: Dabra Day, Adare Castle strike gold

Woodbine Mohawk Park fans were treated to Ontario Sires Stakes on Friday, Aug. 20 with a pair of C$100,000-plus Gold Series divisions for the 2-year-old trotting fillies.

Dabra Day kicked things off in the first C$101,400 Gold Series split with a front-end effort that saw her sail through fractions of 27 2/5, 57 1/5, and 1:25 4/5 and on to a one-half length victory in a 1:55 2/5 personal-best. Resolving was a hard-closing second and pocket-sitting favorite Elegant Mermaid was third.

"We're very excited about her," said trainer Meg Crone. "She has tons of talent, just very, very quirky. My husband (Anthony Haughan), he absolutely loves her, but he is the most patient person in the world. I don't know if she'd have come this far if someone else had her, because she's very trying. He deserves all the credit with her. I wouldn't even say she's a handful, I can't even describe her."

Louis-Philippe Roy piloted the Kadabra daughter to her second lifetime win for Crone and owners W.J. Donovan and Purnel And Libby LLC. Dabra Day was victorious in the first leg of the Pure Ivory Series on July 22 at Woodbine Mohawk Park, but she also has a pair of breaks on her card through five starts.

"Her gait is flawless," said Crone. "She actually only wears the trotting hopples just because she'll see something and it will just throw her off, but she's a great gaited filly, and she wants to please you. She's just quirky."

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In the second C$102,200 Gold division, Adare Castle extended her flawless record to three with an impressive off-the-pace effort for driver James MacDonald. Fourth at the three-quarter marker, the favorite laid down a 27 1/5 final fraction to grab the 1:55 3/5 victory, digging in hard at the wire to hold off a fast-closing Mischevious Rose by a head. Needa Little Magic was six lengths back in third.

"She got away a little farther back than I would have liked, and James said that himself, he said, 'We didn't get her in the right position,' but she's just such a gutsy thing and just keeps going forward," said trainer Mark Etsell. "He said, 'I thought Bobby (McClure with Mischevious Rose) was going to go right by me, and I asked again and she dug in and went.' She's just a good horse."

Etsell shares ownership of Adare Castle with Robert Newton, Graham Hopkins, and Peter Porter. The partners were relieved to see the Muscle Mass daughter race well after missing a few days last week due to a bout of abdominal discomfort.

"It was weird, the day we were going to school her I said, 'That filly doesn't look right,' and took her temperature and she had a bit of a temperature," said Etsell, who then called his veterinarian out to examine Adare Castle. "She was a little colicky, and it wasn't like a major, major thing, but there was something bugging her in her stomach, so we had to do the normal colic stuff and then she had a couple of days off.

"I trained her on the Friday and she was a little blah, but she can be that way. She kind of fools you. She knows the difference between racing and training," added Etsell. "She jogs every day with loose lines, and she putts around there like a 14-year-old, but when you bring her to the track here tonight, her ears are up and she grabs a hold of the bit, like, 'Okay I know what it is, it's race time.' And that's only three starts in, so I'm pretty tickled."

--press release (Ontario Sires Stakes)--