Bee In Charge pulled off a 12-1 upset while Muscles For Life was a 25-1 surprise winner in a pair of $104,020 Simcoe Stakes divisions for the three-year-old trotting colts.
The Chris Christoforou-driven Bee In Charge followed Waitlifter K (Matt Kakaley) through panels of :27.1, :57 and 1:25.1 before prevailing from the pocket in a career-best 1:52.4 mile with 39-1 longshot Winter Harbor (Tim Tetrick) coming on for second. The winner’s stablemate, Muscle Hustle (Randy Waples), overtook Waitlifter K along the pylons for third. Meanwhile, even-money favourite Sutton broke stride before the first turn.
Per Henriksen trains the Manofmanymissions-Beehive gelding, who now boasts back-to-back victories and wins in six of his 11 sophomore starts for Melvin Hartman of Ottawa, Ont. and David McDuffee of Delray Beach, Florida.
“This horse has just been getting better and better,” said Henriksen. “He won handy in the [Ontario Sires Stakes] Gold up there at Georgian and tonight he really showed up.”
Driven by Doug McNair for his father’s Gregg McNair Stable, Muscles For Life fired to the lead from post seven in his division while Tony Soprano (Steve Condren) broke stride to his outside at the :27.2 first quarter. Dia Monde (Randy Waples) then looped Muscles For Life down the backstretch and carved out middle splits of :56.4 and 1:25.4, but Muscles For Life nosed out that rival at the wire in a career-best clocking of 1:54.4. Taco Tuesday (Tim Tetrick) closed outside to nab second-place honours over Dia Monde in the three-way finish.
Afterwards, Doug McNair admitted that he was shocked to win the race.
“I looked over leaving and there wasn’t a lot of leavers so I took a shot at leaving and it worked out good,” said the reinsman of his front-end strategy with the longshot winner.
An Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots champion last season, the Muscle Mass-Serenity Girl colt earned his biggest victory to date and is now three-for-12 in his sophomore season for owner Jarold Hawks of Jeddo, Michigan.
“End of last year, I thought for sure he’d come back to be a Gold colt this year,” said Doug McNair. “He raced a good couple of times this year, but he’s starting to come around. Last week, he was real good up in Georgian [competing in an Ontario Sires Stakes Gold event]. Tonight, he beat some nice colts so hopefully he’s on the right track.”
(Standardbred Canada)
