Homebred pacing colt Watching Sunset gave his connections and the audience at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Saturday (July 1) something to look at with an impressive victory by double digits during the Canada Day session of baby races.
After a solid debut for his connections one week ago, Watching Sunset made every call a winning one in the Saturday lidlifter. Tyler Moore allowed the colt to chop out early fractions of :29.2 and :59 before asking the colt for another gear in the back half. Watching Sunset responded with a :55.1 final half, hitting the third station seven lengths the best in 1:26.4 and then followed that up with a :27.2 closer to hit the wire in 1:54.2. Brudon (Trevor Henry) was next best, 12 lengths in arrears.
A homebred co-owned by Nurko Sokolovic of Waterloo and trainer Craig Barss of Cobourg, Ont., Watching Sunset is a son of Hes Watching and Midnight Jet — she a full-sister to the owners' accomplished veteran pacer Ideal Jet.
Elegant Resolve appeared to be on his way to the fastest qualifying mile of the morning on the trot for trainer/driver Matt Bax, but Send It In Hanover and Sylvain Filion had other ideas. After sitting behind Elegant Resolve through fractions of :31.1, 1:02 and 1:31.4, Send It In Hanover sent it in with a :27.2 close to a 1:59.3 mile. Elegant Resolve showed some resolve through a :27.4 final panel, but just fell short by a head.
Send It In Hanover (Greenshoe - Southwind Percy) is co-owned by his trainer Ben Baillargeon of Guelph, Ont., along with Frank Cirillo of Kleinburg, Ont., Santo Vena of Cedar Valley, Ont. and Nunzio Vena of Bolton, Ont. The $85,000 Lexington Selected yearling is a half-brother to the accomplished 2023 stakes winner Sadie Hanover 3, 1:51.3s -'23 ($162,454).
The full video stream from the Saturday session is available below.
For results from the qualifying session, click the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park (Qualifiers).