Righteous Resolve doubles in $102,000 Gold

MILTON, August 11 – Ontario Sires Stakes harness racing took over the card tonight (Aug. 11) at Woodbine Mohawk Park with two Gold trotting and five Grassroots pacing divisions for first-year fillies. The highlight of the night was Righteous Resolve (Resolve) winning her second straight Gold division in impressive fashion.

In race 8, the second $102,200 Gold division, Paul MacDonnell settled the filly into mid-pack early, behind an opening panel of 28.3 set by Stonebridge Bravo. 

MacDonnell made his move along the backstretch after Tyler Jones sent Winooski to the front and was promptly overtaken by Righteous Resolve as the field passed the half in 59.2.

Stonebridge Bravo tried to track down the John Bax trainee, but she would not be denied, winning in a time of 1:57.1 by more than two lengths.

“I thought Paul did a great job tonight to let them all settle in and then he came with her,” said Bax. “And I was impressed with (Righteous Resolve). She’s a big strong filly and pretty masculine for a filly. I’m hoping that she can handle the big girls and keep on going.”

Bax’s first-year-trotters are off to a strong start across the board. He’s had five two-year-olds make a combined 12 Gold starts for a record of 4-3-2. 

“You have to start with a good horse. We’ve got lucky and picked a few, and this one was given to us to train,” said Bax. “Trainers get too much credit when it goes good, and too much credit it when it goes bad, but hopefully we can keep going.”

Righteous Resolve is a Bet Max Stables (Casco, MI), and Benenati Inc (Clinton Twp, MI) homebred. The win puts her earnings at $135,525 for her young career and her record at three wins in four tries. She paid $4.20 to win.

Her two main challengers, Stonebridge Bravo and Winooski, finished second and third.

Stonebridge Bravo made her OSS debut for trainer John Drennan. Alan Janik of Tecumseh, Ont., owns the Muscle Mass colt. Winooski showed nice form after struggling in a pair of Pure Ivory starts at Mohawk her last two times out. Dustin Jones bred, trains, and owns the Royalty For Life filly.

The Gold action got underway earlier, in race four, with Mass Hysteria (Muscle Mass) leading gate to wire to notch her first career win.

Trevor Henry piloted the filly to an opening fraction of 28.2 and settled into a comfortable pace, leading the field through a 30.1 second panel for a half-mile time of 58.3.

Doug McNair made a first-up move with betting favourite Sweet Determination midway through the backstretch and moved within a half-length rounding the far turn.

Henry called on his filly as McNair slid into the pocket and the Kyle Bossence trainee turned on the afterburners. She came home in 28.4 to win by over five lengths in a final time of 1:57.0.

“I couldn’t be happier with the performance. I’ve always really liked her and it’s nice when it pays off,” said Bossence. “Three of us own her, and the other two guys jog horses for me every day. So, it’s nice that the home team gets the win.”

Bossence co-owns the filly with Daniel Culp (Moorefield, Ont.), and William Pendleton (Kenilworth, Ont.), who paid $8.60 for the win. She is one-for-three lifetime with $60,556 in earnings.

Sweet Determination finished second, moving her career record to 1-2-0 from three OSS Gold starts. Patrick Laing trains and co-owns the Lookslikeachpndale filly with Dewitt Stables (Little Britain, Ont.).

Bax trainee Its Your Choice rounded out the top-three with Louis-Phillipe Roy driving. It was the third consecutive third-place finish for the Muscle Mass filly owned by Al Libfeld (Pickering, Ont.), and Marvin and Lynn Katz from Toronto, Ont.

Grassroots News and Notes

A pair of fillies became multiple OSS winners in 2022. Cheesy Smile (Bettarthancheddar) added a Grassroots win to her Gold earlier the season, and Carla Cam (Artspeak) won a second Grassroots division. 

All Bets Off continues his impressive fresham sire season with Grandeur Seelster winning.

Ima Doll (Control The Moment) dropped down to Grassroots after a fourth and fifth place finish in two Gold starts to pick up her first career win. 

Cheese So Pretty (Betterthancheddar) wrapped up the night by winning her second straight start and for the first time in the OSS.

For complete race results, click here.

For current OSS standings, click here.

From the Ontario Sires Stakes