Woodbine Mohawk Park: Impressive comeback for Righteous Resolve in OSS Gold Series

Righteous Resolve, Canada's top 2-year-old trotting filly from 2022, surfaced for the first time in a pari-mutuel race this year in the second C$103,100 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series flight for sophomore filly trotters on Thursday night at Woodbine Mohawk Park and won from off-the-pace in 1:53 flat.

Stonebridge Bravo (Dagfin Henriksen) charged away from post four and led at the 26 4/5 opening quarter in the event, but she would end up sitting fourth at the 55 3/5 half as Mass Hysteria (Trevor Henry), Believe U Me (Louis-Philippe Roy) and Baroness Hill (Doug McNair) all advanced on the rim and took a turn on the front-end.

Baroness Hill opened up a gap on the field racing to the 1:23 4/5 three-quarters, but Righteous Resolve (James MacDonald) had flushed out Stonebridge Bravo to sit second-over at that marker, though she did have over six lengths to make up. Make the lengths up she did through the lane, as behind a final quarter of 28 seconds flat, Righteous Resolve rallied and powered by Baroness Hill in the closing strides to tally by half a length. Stonebridge Bravo ended up third after her multiple-move effort.

"I'm very happy with her. She's a gritty filly," said winning trainer Matt Bax. "You never know coming off of so much time off, but I thought that we had her ready. She was good and the trip worked out nice. You can't say much more about that heart on her.

"She was ready to go for the first OSS race. She got sick and there was the smog advisory, and that all delayed things. That's just the way it worked out, and I think she's going to be better for it because she had lots of time to recover after the sickness and train up. It worked out tonight."

A daughter of Resolve bred by owners Bet Max Stables Inc. and Benenati Inc., Righteous Resolve has a summary of 9-1-1 from 11 appearances and has now earned C$675,254. She paid $2.50 to win as the 1-5 favorite.

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Back in the first division, Muscling Vegas, driven by trainer Paul MacDonell, led her eight rivals through fractions of 27 2/5, 56 2/5 and 1:24 3/5 and pulled away in a 28 3/5 last panel to prevail by 3 3/4 lengths in 1:53 1/5. Wedding Dancer (McNair) and Enola (Tyler Borth) rounded out the trifecta.

"Her honesty is just going to take her so far. She just want to trot. She wants to give you what she has every night," remarked MacDonell. "You can't ask for any more in racehorse than that. She's just a pleasure to have.

"She can make a driver look pretty good. She's push-button at all times and she's so smart."

Chris and Michael Storms own Muscling Vegas, a Muscle Mass filly. Bred by Hayley and James Moore, Muscling Vegas has four wins, four seconds and a third in 11 efforts, pushed her bankroll to C$184,440 and returned $15.80 to win as the 6-1 third choice.