Trainer Dennis Johnston will have a strong 1-2 punch in the $75,000 Robert Millbank Memorial on B.C. Breeders Classic Day at Fraser Downs on Thursday afternoon.
Drawing the inside posts one and two, the horseman’s hopes lie with the morning line favourite and a promising homebred out of a previous B.C. Breeders Stakes champion.
Jimmyachance is the early 2-1 favourite in the two-year-old pacing colt final after a 1:56.4 career-best performance over a sloppy track with his rivals nowhere in sight during the third and final preliminary leg on November 3. The victory was his second in stakes action and fourth lifetime through six starts.
“He raced pretty good; I was pleased with the way he went,” Johnston told Trot Insider. “He’s just a nice horse. He doesn't do anything wrong. He just does whatever you ask him and he behaves well.”
Bred by Shirley Klassen of Abbotsford, B.C., Jimmyachance has finished no worse than third in his career while banking $24,425 for Johnston and co-owner Bill Pambrun, who purchased the Big Jim-Color Me Happy colt last fall before the yearling sale. Familiar with the family, Johnston had campaigned his half-sister Riverunsnappy, a runner-up in the Betty Millbank final two years ago to division leader Probert, who went on to close out a perfect campaign by equalling the two-year-old filly track record at the time in her next start for trainer/driver Rod Therres. (Riverunsnappy, who was sold the following November, is entered in tonight’s second race).
Johnston’s homebred contender is Sammy Santana, the first foal out of his 2016 Mary Murphy Breeders Stakes champion Mysterious Lady. He bred and shares ownership of the straightforward Santanna Blue Chip colt with Ray Thomson.
Sammy Santana broke his maiden in early October and has been a runner-up in all three legs of the Robert Millbank Stakes while accumulating $16,270 in earnings from his first six races.
"He's been really good as well,” said Johnston. “We raised him so we've been around him his whole life and he's come along as good as can be."
Other top contenders in the field include Joe Rich (post eight), who is the 3-1 second choice on the morning line after winning all three of his preliminary divisions for driver Brandon Campbell and trainer Jim Marino; Alberta Super Final champion Ladner Lad (trailing post nine) for trainer/driver Rod Therres; Lets Tie One On (post five), a preliminary winner in round two for trainer/driver Kelly Hoerdt; and the lightly raced Darren Poloway trainee A Dudes Promise (post three), who has consistently been in the mix with Chris Linford in the sulky.
“To draw the one and two is great to have the inside compared to the outside, for sure, but I think the other guys are probably going to try to leave and try and get position so it’s hard to say,” said Johnston, who has driven 492 winners lifetime and earned 463 training victories. “I’ll leave that up to the drivers.”
Sammy Santana will be driven by his regular reinsman Scott Knight while Doug McNair will pick up the catch-drive on Jimmyachance when he arrives in B.C. for the stakes card.
Over the past 10 years that Johnston has been back in B.C., he’s won four finals with McNair delivering the winning drives for Mysterious Lady as well as Illwinifican, Go To The Windows and his first freshman colt champion Blissful Angel. With two stakes finalists from his stable of eight this year, the trainer is hoping ‘Sammy’ or ‘Jimmy’ will give him a chance at win number five.
The Robert Millbank Memorial is the first of four $75,000 B.C. Breeders Stakes finals on Fraser Downs’s special Thursday matinee program, which will begin at 1 p.m. (PST). The 10-race card also includes the $35,000 Jim Vinnell Memorial and companion Lady Elements Stakes for older pacers.
To view complete entries for Thursday's harness racing card at Fraser Downs, click on the following links: Thursday Entries - Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT)