When Safe Conduct heads postward in the third leg of the Ontario Sired Graduate Series on Friday (April 28), it will mark the first time the 2022 O'Brien Award finalist will have the services of a Hall of Fame driver despite only ever having one driver.
That driver is Chris Christoforou, who was named as part of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame's Class of 2023 on Wednesday (April 26).
"It's life-changing, man, I'll tell you that," Christoforou said to Standardbred Canada's Jeff Porchak, who made the call to Christoforou on behalf of the Hall of Fame. "It's fantastic."
Safe Conduct, trained by Chris' wife Camilla Christoforou, is a four-year-old career earner of $302,200 to go along with five wins, two seconds and five thirds from 21 starts. In his sophomore year, the gelded son of Archangel and the Muscle Hill mare Safekeeping collected $262,934 of those career earnings with a record of 4-2-5 in 13 starts. His most notable achievement follows a victory in the $225,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final for three-year-old male trotters.
As a freshman, the stakes-winning sophomore mustered just one trip to the winner's circle and a fourth-place finish before a series of miscues kept him out of the money.
"At two, he was very fast, but he was erratic. He would make silly breaks," said Christoforou before hearing the news that he was going into the Hall of Fame this summer. "But we castrated him at the end of the year and that was the difference. Once we cut him, his whole mindset changed and he became a racehorse after that. He just progressed as a three-year-old and got better and better.
"He showed a little flashback at the beginning of this year, what he could do before he was castrated. He got behind the gate and got a little bit overexcited and made a break, but I think he is okay now after last week. He should be fine. It was more my fault that he made a break; we changed equipment on him the week before because he was getting a little rammy behind the gate and I wanted to quiet him down a bit, so I opened up his bridle, but he took full advantage and decided he was going to have some fun behind the gate."
After the miscue in his first 2023 appearance, Safe Conduct was adjusted back to a closed bridle, which helped him stay flat to a 1:56.1 fourth-place finish in the second leg of the Ontario Sired Graduate Series.
Once the series is complete, the partnership behind Safe Conduct have no plans of changes for the gelding.
"He's going to stay here and have a limited amount of starts. We'll keep a cap on it — probably 15 or 16 starts will be the most and then, hopefully the next two years, he will progress into hopefully a Free-For-All horse," said Christoforou.
As for his lineage, Christoforou was the primary driver for Safe Conduct's dam, Safekeeping. The daughter of Muscle Hill was trained by Christoforou's father, Charalambos Christoforou, as well as Per Henriksen.
"The mare was a bit longer gaited than he is," said Christoforou.
"He's got a lot of Archangel, he looks exactly like Archangel, trots like Archangel and he is more like his sire than anything. His mother is a Muscle Hill, so I'm thinking maybe he gets a little bit of speed from there."
Safe Conduct seeks his first seasonal victory on Friday in the third leg of the Ontario Sired Graduate Series, leaving from post position two in the field of seven with morning line odds of 5-1. Two-time Graduate winner Adare Castle (PP6, James MacDonald) is the 2-1 morning line choice in Friday's third race.
To view the entries for Friday's card of harness racing at Woodbine Mohawk Park, the first day of the track's 60th anniversary celebrations, click the following link: Friday Entries - Woodbine Mohawk Park.