Sylvia Hanover gearing up to defend her crown

2022 Dan Patch and O’Brien Award winning pacing filly Sylvia Hanover (Always B Miki-Shyaway) surfaced in a harness racing qualifier last week at Mohawk Park, and her conditioner Shawn Steacy liked what he saw from his pacing champion.

“She qualified last Friday, and I was super happy with the way Bob (McClure) handled her. She qualified really good,” Steacy said. “He kept her buried up the whole way, too, which was really nice to see.”

Sylvia Hanover, the $135,000 yearling buy had a stellar rookie season in 2022. She won eight of nine starts with one second, including Grand Circuit wins in the Eternal Camnation, Champlain and Shes A Great Lady stakes and the Breeders Crown.

Steacy agreed that in most years that did not include epic campaigns from the likes of Bulldog Hanover, his pupil would have won the Somebeachsomewhere Horse of the Year in Canada.

“Outside of Bulldog Hanover, I think she was one that best represented Canada and kind of put people in awe because of the way she did things,” he said. “It’s not just that she won. She did it differently than most normal horses do it.”

Still, there were areas for improvement. In both the elimination and final of the Breeders Crown, she gave up the lead on the backstretch, the re-rallied in the stretch to win. She appeared to get complacent on the lead in both races, something Steacy hopes she matures out of.

“She’s come back a little bit racier than last year, but not by a whole lot,” he explained. “That was her thing last year; she wasn’t really ambitious at times, but she found a way to get the job done. But I’m really happy with where she is at right now. We qualified her right where we wanted to, and we are going to qualify her again this week and just see where we are at from there. After the season that she had last year, we know she has the talent and ability.

“So, what we are trying to work on with her all the time is keeping her mentally interested and happy. When she is happy and she wants to do it, that’s when she is as good or better than anything there has been at her level so far.”

Steacy indicated that Sylvia Hanover’s first 2023 start would come in the Fan Hanover stakes with plans for a full U.S. campaign. He added that he was thrilled with his stables accomplishments last year.

“We had five O’Brien nominees and to be thought of at that level is just a privilege,” he noted. “Last year at the start of the year we set some goals, I said anything less than $1 million in total earnings I thought would be kind of a failure for our stables. $1.5 million would be a good year and $2 million would a dream year. When it was all said and done, we were only a couple thousand shy of $3 million in earnings and we had close to 100 wins. I never thought we would get to that plateau. I’d like to repeat those milestones this year.”

Some of Steacy’s other stable stars that contributed to his career year were sophomore trotting mare Warrawee Xenia, who won nine races – including an exciting victory in a Hambletonian Oaks elimination – and earned $222,000, and two-year-old pacer, Ace of Aces, who won only one of nine starts but took six other tip three finishes racing against the best rookie pacing colts all year.

Steacy acknowledged Ace of Aces’ consistency which led to him being an O’Brien finalist with eventual winner Stockade Seelster.

“He was as tough as nails last year,” he said of the sophomore son of Bettors Delight. “He wasn’t flashy, but he was right there, 2nd and 3rd all year, and he never threw in a bad race.”

Ace of Aces is expected to make his first start in the Somebeachsomewhere stakes with an eye to the North America Cup next month.

Steacy’s stable appears poised to provide him with another stellar campaign.

by Garnet Barnsdale, for Harnesslink