Happy Trio lived up to his name in Friday’s sixth race at The Raceway at Western Fair District. The three-year-old pacing colt put broad smiles on the faces of his three owners as he cruised to an impressive victory in the second of two $95,600 Gold Series divisions.
“I’m pumped, I’m so proud of him. That’s a hell of a mile,” said trainer Tony O’Sullivan after Happy Trio halted the teletimer at 1:53, just one-fifth of a second shy of the track record for sophomore pacing colts.
Starting from Post 1, driver Doug McNair of Guelph, ON sent Happy Trio directly to the front and the pair never faced a challenge as they rang up fractions of :27.2, :56.3 and 1:24.4 en route to the 1:53 score. Fireball followed the pacesetter throughout the mile and finished two and one-quarter lengths back in second, while fan favourite Streakavana finished five lengths back in third.
“All I said to Dougie was, you know, you can let him pace out of there and after that it’s up to you. He’s really, really quick,” said O’Sullivan. “And at the half I was pretty confident because Dougie really had a good hold of him and that’s what that horse likes. He likes to feel brave, and Dougie is pretty good at making one feel brave.”
Cambridge resident O’Sullivan shares ownership of Happy Trio with Lorne Keller of Exeter and Domenic Chiaravalle of Hamilton, ON. The win was the Mach Three son’s first of the season through two outings and his second lifetime. As a two-year-old, Happy Trio was a Gold Series winner at Mohawk Racetrack and banked $157,145 in nine starts.
“I’m so proud of him, because it was the toughest division by far, on paper, and there are horses in here that have paced faster and done better,” said O’Sullivan. “But he was a good horse last year. He made good money and he never, I think he raced bad once, other than that he was always right there.”
Happy Trio will have an opportunity to earn another piece of Ontario Sires Stakes hardware when the three-year-old pacing colts make their second Gold Series start at Mohawk Racetrack on July 1.
The other $95,600 Gold division on The Raceway’s action-packed Molson Pace program went to fan favourite Walter Mitty, who overcame early interference to score a 1:56.3 victory. Happy Trio’s stablemate in the O’Sullivan barn, Calvin K, finished one and three-quarter lengths back in second and Dreamfair B J was third for owner-breeder John Lamers of Ingersoll.
Louis-Philippe Roy piloted Walter Mitty to victory in his Ontario Sires Stakes debut for trainer Richard Moreau and owners Synerco Ventures Inc. of Toronto, ON. The win boosted the Mach Three gelding’s lifetime record to two wins, two seconds and two thirds in six starts for earnings of $65,560.
In the evening’s grand finale, the $150,000 Molson Pace, fan favourite Bit Of A Legend N took control early and never looked back, cruising home a one and three-quarter length winner over last year’s Molson Pace champion Evenin Of Pleasure. Sunfire Blue Chip finished third.
Jordan Stratton engineered the win for trainer Peter Tritton and owner Harry Von Knoblauch Stable of San Diego, CA. The victory boosted the New Zealand bred pacer’s earnings to $1.6 million.
(Photo of driver Doug McNair and Happy Trio courtesy of AG Photography)
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