Woodbine Mohawk Park: McCarthy with power for Saturday stakes

Driver Andrew McCarthy has a busy weekend scheduled highlighted by the sport's number one rated Ramona Hill, who will be searching for a sixth straight triumph in the C$350,000 Elegantimage at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Saturday night. McCarthy will find himself in Lexington on Sunday for the Kentucky Sire Stakes championship as well.

"I've been granted a quarantine exemption," said McCarthy from Mohawk on Wednesday where he had just finished training Ramona Hill in preparation for Saturday's contest.
"She trained great this morning," said McCarthy. "Last week (Simcoe) she was very good and was just in second gear."

Ramona Hill and McCarthy captured the Simcoe at Woodbine Mohawk in 1:53 2/5, more than three seconds slower than the daughter of Muscle Hill needed to win this year's Hambletonian. On Saturday she'll be racing exclusively against fillies, but McCarthy by no means is taking it for granted.

"This isn't a walkover. Sorella is a very talented filly and you have to respect her," said McCarthy. "I have confidence that my filly is the best out there and that includes the colts."

Certainly Ramona Hill has done everything she's been asked to do this year and enters Saturday's contest with 11 career wins in just 13 starts. Trainer Tony Alagna has kept the filly sharp throughout. "She's a very special filly," said McCarthy. "She's good right now but it's hard to be better than how good she was on Hambletonian Day."

Indeed Ramona Hill's 1:50 1/5 mile on August 8 set her apart from her class but Saturday's contest will also give Sorella, a six-time winner this year, a chance at redemption, having come up short in both encounters with Ramona Hill this season. While Ramona Hill landed post one on Saturday, Sorella starts from post three and has won two straight over the Woodbine Mohawk Park strip, including a 1:51 3/5 mile in the Casual Breeze on August 28.

Travel restrictions likely tempered the number of entries for this year's Metro Pace for juvenile colts and geldings, but what the field lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. For McCarthy, that means a seat behind Abuckabett Hanover in the second C$40,000 trial (Race 2).

"He's always had extreme speed," said McCarthy of the colt by first-crop stallion Betting Line. "He was a little tricky to drive early on. He had trouble with that final turn at Pocono (8/16) but recovered to win that race."

The Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Abuckabett Hanover won on August 16 set him up nicely for two appearances at Woodbine Mohawk Park in recent weeks. The Tony Alagna-trained colt captured a Nassagaweya division on August 29 and then took a career mark of 1:50 3/5 winning by open lengths last week with McCarthy in the bike in a Champlain division.

"His gait is getting a lot better," said McCarthy of the $160,000 Harrisburg yearling sale purchase in 2019.

Only six go in Abuckabett Hanover's Metro division, with the likely prohibitive favorite drawing post three. Ontario Sire Stakes Gold division winner Lawless Shadow (post 2) and Bayfield Beach (post 5), who most recently finished third in the rich Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship final, provide the competition.

McCarthy noted that the weather in Ontario has been rather brisk, with temperatures hitting 30 degrees Fahrenheit last weekend. That may not be the best for those who appreciate the warm temperature but he figures it will have a positive impact for Caviart Ally, the veteran pacing mare he guided to Breeders Crown success here last year and returns for the second of two Milton elimination heats (race 8) on Saturday.

"When I drove her in the qualifier a few weeks back she seemed like her old self," said McCarthy, referring to the 1:51 mile at The Meadowlands on September 5. "She definitely likes the cooler weather a lot more."

Caviart Ally won last year's Milton and hopes to repeat while meeting just five rivals in her elimination. Caviart Ally landed the pole position.

McCarthy is also listed to drive a pair for trainer Nifty Norman on Saturday, with Major Occasion A in the first Milton elimination (race 6) and Chestnut Hill (post 3) in the evening's C$560,000 featured Canadian Trotting Classic for sophomore trotters (race 5). Ready For Moni (post 6) is the likely choice in that contest, having won five of his six starts this year with a second behind Ramona Hill in the Hambletonian his only blemish.