Lookslikeachpndale colt captures $300,000 OSS Super Final

Willowtime (Lookslikeachpndale), a mid-season harness racing debutante, bounced back from a break in the Ontario Sires Stakes Gold regular season finale as he won the $300,000 Super Final for freshman trotting males on Friday (Oct. 13) at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Bob McClure hustled him off the gate from post three and raced through the first turn with company from outside starter Myretirementdream (Jody Jamieson). The two reached the quarter side-by-side in :27, and they fought down the backstretch to the half in :55.4.

Willowtime began to slip away at the midway point and had put the challenger away at the entrance to the homeward turn. He hit three-quarters in 1:25.3 with a cushion but drifted out on the turn, allowing Griff (Louis-Philippe Roy) to close the distance and threaten down the stretch. Willowtime’s strides shortened approaching the line, but he had the race well in hand and stopped the clock in 1:54.4.

Griff reduced the margin to a length-and-a-quarter and took second over What About Elmo (Tyler Jones).

WILLOWTIME REPLAY

Willowtime kicked off his season successfully leg three of the Gold series on Aug. 8, and made it three straight with successive wins in leg four and the Champlain Stakes. He broke in the fifth Gold leg in his last start but recovered to hold third. The colt, trained by Mark Etsell, has now upped his earnings total to $355,619 in five outings. Etsell co-owns him with Terry Davos of Langton and Peter Porter of Port Dover.

“It’s great,” Etsell said on the broadcast. “Nice bounce back from last start, but we’ve had a lot of confidence in him since his first start and he’s been really good. He is just very green and very immature…like a big kid [who] doesn’t focus a lot. So we changed some stuff this week, and he seemed to do a lot better.”

It was the third Super Final of the night at Woodbine Mohawk Park. The two-year-old finals will be completed on tonight’s card, followed by the three-year-old events on Saturday.

For complete race results, click here.

by Nicholas Barnsdale, for Harnesslink