Muscle Mass colt captures $150,000 Gold Mid-Season Final

Ways N Means (Muscle Mass) fired from the pocket to win the $150,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Mid-Season Final for three-year-old harness racing trotting colts on Saturday (Jul. 13).

Doug McNair took the pocket behind Willowtime (Mario Baillargeon), who left to the outside of him and reached the top in a :26.3 first split. The leader put down :55.4 and 1:24.2 fractions in the middle half with Myretirementdream (Scott Young) marching first-up going into the final turn.

Ways N Means joined the two on the rail coming down the stretch, switching focus to Myretirementdream as that colt took over past the eighth pole. Ways N Means bridged the final half-length swiftly and surged clear late to a length-and-a-quarter score in a lifetime-best-equaling 1:53.

Myretirementdream hung onto second with a length to spare over Finite (Sylvain Filion). The winner returned $7.50.

WAYS N MEANS REPLAY

The victory was Ways N Means’s first Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) win of the season and second overall in 2024. Michael Keeling trains the three-year-old for Dreamville Stable of Cambridge and Harbor Racing Stable of Uxbridge. The colt has won five of 16 lifetime starts and has earned $177,585.

Masstercraft (Muscle Mass), also in his first OSS tally this year, took the $40,000 Gold Mid-Season Consolation. The colt rallied by Scintillating Tom (McNair) from the pocket to take the victory in 1:53.4 for Trevor Henry. Stormont Happy Day (Filion) rounded out the triactor.

MASSTERCRAFT REPLAY

Masstercraft is trained by Kyle Bossence and owned by Steven Colvin of Hanover. The three-year-old’s victory was his second lifetime in 14 attempts. He has now earned $117,084.

Also on the card, Whichwaytothebeach (Somebeachsomewhere) won his third straight top-level overnight in the $36,000 Preferred Pace. Fillion piloted him to the 1:49 front-end score, getting him home by a neck over the closing Jabberwocky (Henry). Blue Hunt (Travis Cullen) finished third.

WHICHWAYTOTHEBEACH REPLAY

Whichwaytothebeach has now won four consecutive races and is six-for-18 on the season. The Garry Merner student took his lifetime mark of 1:48.4 last week. Gino Toscani owns the six-year-old, who is a 24-time winner with $913,053 in his coffers from 88 lifetime starts.

Racing will resume at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Monday, Jul. 15 at 7:10 p.m. EDT. The 10-race card will feature OSS Gold leg two for rookie pacing colts and geldings and three Grassroots divisions.

For complete race results, click here.

by Nicholas Barnsdale, for Harnesslink