Mystical Ryan blazed to a 1:53.1 effort mid-way through the Monday evening program at Woodbine Racetrack, but he was one-upped later on the card by a soon-to-be European traveler named Define The World
who torched the oval in 1:52.2.
Define The World squared off with five other foes in Woodbine Racetrack’s weekly edition of the $44,000 Open Trot, and the John Bax student kicked some butt.
Paul MacDonell sighted the gelding to the lead right from the word “Go” and the OSS graduate responded by throwing down fractions of :26.1, :55.3 and 1:24.3 en route to the 1:52.2 decision. Canada’s Older Trotting Horse of the Year in 2009, San Pail, was a hard-closing second and last week’s Open Trot winner, Sakic Seelster, tagged along to finish third.
Al Libfeld bred and owns the five-year-old gelded son of Duke Of York-Venice Holiday, who won for the second time this season. The 23-time recently surpassed $1 million in earnings.
Earlier on the card Mystical Ryan turned in an eye-catching performance when he rolled to a 1:53.1 mile in his $24,000 assignment for Team Baillargeon.
Trained by Ben Baillargeon and reined by driver Mario Baillargeon, Mystical Ryan turned in what at the time was the nation’s fastest trotting mile of 2010. It lowered the seasonal record of 1:53.3 which was established one week ago by his stablemate, Sakic Seelster, and Tacs Delight.
Mystical Ryan, who owns a speed badge of 1:52.3, darted to the lead from post nine and whacked out panels of :26.2, :55.3 and 1:24.2 en route to stopping the teletimer in 1:53.1.
The victory was the third of the season for the eight-year-old Striking Sahbra gelding. Frank Cirillo of Kleinburg, ON owns the 26-time winner who surpassed $500,000 in career earnings with the tally.
To view Monday’s results, click here.