Woodbine Mohawk Park: A great eight for Ontario-sired starlet Chantilly

Two-year-old pacing filly Chantilly is now eight-for-eight this year after a 1:51 win in a C$140,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series event on Thursday night at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Stonebridge Wizard and Sterling Choice took C$95,000 splits for rookie male pacers.

Chantilly (James MacDonald) was third at the 27 4/5 opening quarter but came to the outside past that marker and worked her way past Macapelo Seelster (Tyler Borth) beyond the 56 1/5 half-mile station. From there, Chantilly clicked off three-quarters in 1:24 1/5 and then came home in 26 4/5 to defeat Macapelo Seelster by three lengths. Wicked N Single (Jonathan Drury) got third.

"I just get a little stressed out watching her following the horses, but as soon as she clears to the front, you're just kind of watching fractions and seeing what's coming," remarked trainer Nick Gallucci. "She keeps you pretty comfortable once she gets to the lead. He kind of stretched her out a little bit, I thought, getting to the front, but generally in the Golds it's kind of been like 56 halves, 55 and change. It was right in her wheelhouse. She just did her thing."

Bred by owner Millar Farms, Chantilly has earned C$611,000. The daughter of Big Jim paid $2.10 to win as the 1-9 favorite.

In the first division for the colts and geldings, Boxer Seelster (Trevor Henry) carved out fractions of 28, 57 and 1:24 4/5, but Stonebridge Wizard (Doug McNair) shot through a seam on the inside in the lane off a three-hole trip and scored by a neck in 1:51 4/5. Sauble Wilson (Bob McClure) was the runner-up and Smiling Dancer (MacDonald) checked in third.

"I drove him awfully tough in the Battle of Waterloo, and he was sick in the start after that. It kind of just set him back. I actually didn't know if he'd come back or not this year," McNair said after the race. "A few qualifiers ago he wasn't that good and they turned him back out to refresh him. They brought him back, and in his last qualifier he was feeling a little more like himself. He showed tonight he's as tough as whale bone.

"Looking at the program I wanted to follow (Fifth and Five) or (Boxer Seelster) or both of them, and it ended up Jody (Jamieson on Fifth And Five) was the only one leaving, and I figured Trevor would be on the move early. Our teletimer is not working out there right now, but you could tell we weren't going much fractions. I was thinking stop the race now, we're finishing third, that'd be a pretty good purse check. He did a lot of work in the stretch to get by a lot of horses."

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Trainer Jared Bako sent out Stonebridge Wizard, bred by Angie Stiller, for owner David Kryway. Stonebridge Wizard, a gelding from the first crop of Dancin Lou, has been victorious in five of his eight outings, has put away C$281,100 and returned $32.70 to win as a 15-1 offering.

The other colt and gelding pace clash saw Sterling Choice (Louis-Philippe Roy) on top at the 27 second opening quarter, 57 3/5 half and 1:26 3/5 three-quarters, but he was overtaken in the lane by a first-over Allstar Maniac (MacDonald). Sterling Choice wasn't done, though, as he fought back inside the final eighth and surged back around Allstar Maniac to get the victory by three-quarters of a length over a closing Crack Shot (McNair). Allstar Maniac had to settle for third.

"He's a pretty smart horse. When you turn him into gear at the end, he has pretty good gear, too, there," Roy stated post-race. "He's got that long gait, and I was kind of feeling we weren't going fast, but you don't know. Some of those horses with big, long gaits, they feel like they're not going fast and when you see the quarter or even going at the half, you realize you're going a little too fast.

"I didn't want to screw up his chances because once leaving off the gate, when I saw that James and Doug were trying to get a trip for their horses, I was kind of happy with where I was sitting. I could control the race there."

Blake Macintosh trains and co-owns Sterling Choice, a Betterthancheddar colt bred by Winbak Farm, with partners Ozzie MacKay, Tammy MacKay and Gilles Landry. He has a summary of 2-2-3 from 10 outings, has banked C$215,392 and paid $13.30 to win as the 5-1 third choice.