There's a different feeling about Saturday's sixth edition of the Mohawk Million for 2-year-old trotters at Woodbine Mohawk Park. While the rules of the game were modified last year, the 2025 edition finds a healthy cross-section of trainers, horses and owners. The breadth of talent spans the prime areas of interest in the Standardbred sport, but this year's edition finds two horses with connections in Ohio taking center stage. Veteran conditioner Chris Beaver has been following a maternal line for a long time and may finally have found a "great" one in Endurance, a colt from the first crop of Captain Corey who enters Saturday's fray off a powerhouse open-lengths tally in the $400,000 Kentucky Championship Series final at The Red Mile just six days in advance of the $1 million prize. "We've been pointing towards this race," said Beaver on Tuesday the morning after finding out the post draw for the field of 10, with his colt landing post six. "I hear that's the winningest post at the track." Beaver likes the post for certain but has more affection for the $14,000 Harrisburg bargain purchase that may have gone unnoticed by many on the first day of the yearling sale. "I had a horse called Triumphant Caviar that is currently a top sire in Ohio but when he raced for me, he finished second to Muscle Hill in the Breeders Crown," said Beaver about the pedigree that got his attention last fall at the yearling sale. Love Session, the dam of Endurance, is a Muscle Massive-sired sister to Triumphant Caviar born 10 years after the near $800,000 winner was foaled. Triumphant Caviar has played a major part in Beaver's incredible success story within Ohio, as he often trains sons and daughters from the stallion. "He only had one testicle," Beaver said of Triumphant Caviar. "The vets told me I should geld him, but we decided not to." That move has been a blessing not only for Beaver but many others in the Buckeye State where Triumphant Caviar has sired the winners of $23,000,000 from his first 10 crops racing. Beaver also influenced the move of Centurion ATM, a full brother to Triumphant Caviar, to Ohio following a few lean years trying stallion duty in Kentucky. According to Beaver, Triumphant Caviar was not an easy horse to train but he did improve with racing. Conversely, Endurance has been a pleasure from day one. "I felt that he acted like a great horse early on," said Beaver of Endurance. "He did everything easily and I was very high on him. He's been perfect other than touching a knee early on, but we remedied that." ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Endurance finished fourth in his first start on June 23 at Oak Grove with Andrew McCarthy giving him a very conservative steer. Two weeks later McCarthy showed the confidence he's exuded since, with a powerful leaving move that led to a 1:54 3/5 blowout season's record for Endurance. The colt has not lost since, winning the early Kentucky Sire Stakes final at Oak Grove in 1:53 2/5 on July 14 and moving to the mile track in Lexington to dominate horses in the late-summer series at The Red Mile. Endurance and McCarthy closed out the Kentucky Championship on September 14, winning in 1:52 3/5 by open lengths in the $400,000 event, with McCarthy sitting chilly in the bike through the stretch. It was the third time Endurance had been clocked that fast in wins at The Red Mile. "Andy (McCarthy) said he did it very easily," Beaver said of the Championship effort. "He finished with the earplugs in." Beaver and ownership have been eying the Mohawk Million for some time and with a partnership deal in place to share the purse, have been mapping out plans for Endurance. "That's why I raced him every three weeks," said Beaver of the schedule that he put in place after annexing the first two Kentucky Championship legs. "After the Million he'll have the Breeders Crown and that's it." For Beaver, Endurance represents a chance to have a horse with a major stallion career, and that is one of the reasons he felt racing and potentially winning the Mohawk Million would help advance the horse's future once his racing career was done. While Endurance was dominating in Kentucky, another Ohio-based trainer had a solid juvenile campaign chasing him throughout the series and was making plans of his own to be at Woodbine Mohawk Park this coming Saturday. Trainer Matt Burkholder's Silverstein had captured a Kentucky Championship leg and finished second to Endurance on multiple occasions. "We were chasing and competitive against a great horse like Endurance," said Burkholder. "When a place became available on Ongait.com we took the step." Unlike Beaver's experience with Endurance, Burkholder wasn't a fan of Silverstein, a gelded son of Chapter Seven, training down. "He was terrible. He would make breaks for no reason at all training down," said Burkholder. Fortunately for Burkholder, he didn't give up on Silverstein, an $80,000 Lexington Selected purchase by owner David Mcelrath (Dark Horse Farms). "Once he got behind the starting gate, he figured it out and has just gotten better," Burkholder said. The 28-year-old conditioner got started working for six years for top Ohio trainer Marty Wollam, who retired, leaving the door open for Burkholder to go on his own. The move has proven fortuitous, with his stable earnings improving each year and Silverstein's total of $185,000 giving him a chance to reach seven figures for the very first time. Silverstein drew post two with Hall of Famer David Miller in the bike. "I was really happy with the draw," said Burkholder, who will ship his horse on Friday (September 19). "It's just a four-hour ship." The Ohio Sire Stakes program has gotten increasingly popular in the last few years. For Beaver, who has long been a force on the trotting side in Ohio, the change has been felt. "It's definitely getting a lot more competitive here," Beaver said. "I used to be able to dominate but not anymore. It's getting a lot more difficult." The growth within the state has led to many expanding their reach and horses like Endurance and Silverstein succeeding in Kentucky and beyond, with the richest race in North America on the radar. On Saturday the stakes are higher, and the competition will be fierce as Endurance faces his biggest test of his young career. "He hasn't faced many of those horses," said Beaver of Endurance, who will meet the Peter Haughton Memorial winner Apex (post one), as well as the William Wellwood Memorial champion Ardonne (post three) and the New York Sire Stakes champion AI (post 10), a son of Chapter Seven from the red-hot Ron Burke stable. The Mohawk Million has its bargain buys with Endurance the biggest and Wellwood champion Ardonne costing but $37,000. Cambridge Hanover, a $1 million buy by trainer Andrew Harris' ownership on the same day at Harrisburg that Beaver found his bargain, is the most expensive horse in the field and a brother to last year's champion Maryland. Apex was a $525,000 purchase at the same Harrisburg auction and looks to be the best foal thus far from champion Mission Brief. The Mohawk Million is slated as race 10 on the Woodbine Mohawk Park Saturday stakes extravaganza and may prove to be the most competitive in the race's young history. Post time is 6:35 P.M. (EDT).