Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Ontario Stakes Magnet for Top Stallions

January 6, 2010

By any measure, the lucrative Ontario Sires Stakes program has long been the envy of the harness racing world. Now the $19.8-million program can take credit for landing two more top-flight stallion prospects.

It was announced that Mister Big, the richest pacing horse in history — earnings of $4.1 million—would be standing stud at Tara Hills Stud Farm in Port Perry, Ont. Trotting sensation Deweycheatumnhowe has arrived at Westwind Farms in Strathroy from his previous home in Lexington, Ky., where he completed one year of stallion duty.

Pacing star Shadow Play is expected to arrive at Winbak Farms in Inglewood, Ont., any day now. He was originally supposed to stand at Blue Chip Farms in New York.

Deweycheatumnhowe retired from racing at the end of 2008 after playing a sensational year-long game of “anything you can do I can do better” with pacing superstar Somebeachsomewhere — even though their different gaits prevented them from racing against each other.

In the end, Somebeachsomewhere narrowly edged Dewey for overall horse-of-the-year honours in the United States, but Dewey still ended his career with wins in 22 of 25 starts and earnings of more than $3.1 million and was named the U.S. trotter of the year.

Somebeachsomewhere figures prominently in Shadow Play’s story, too. Shadow Play was arguably The Beach’s chief foil in the pacing game and won the prestigious Little Brown Jug in Ohio, a race The Beach skipped.

When Somebeachsomewhere retired from racing with a nearly perfect 20-for-21 record at the end of the 2008 racing season, Shadow Play’s connections — which include hockey Hall of Famer Serge Savard — opted to race Shadow Play in 2009 before sending the pacer off to stallion duty. Shadow Play was first, second or third in seven of his 11 starts in 2009 and set a career best mark of 1:47.4. He retired from racing with earnings of nearly $1.6 million.

Though Blue Chip Farms bought a piece of Shadow Play near the end of the pacer’s 2008 campaign, they opted to partner with rival Winbak Farms to stand the horse in Canada.

The Ontario Sires Stakes program should really get the credit for both scores. In a news release, Dewey’s part-owner Alan Leavitt said he was moving the stallion because Kentucky has a substandard sires stakes program for standardbreds and Ontario has one of the best in the world.

No doubt there. The entire point of the Ontario Sires Stakes program when it was started in 1973 was to improve the Canadian breed of standardbreds by establishing a series of races for offspring of stallions who stand in Ontario.

Though other jurisdictions have caught up a little thanks to adding slot machines at racetracks — namely programs in New York and Pennsylvania — the Ontario Sires Stakes is still tops in terms of total purses compared to other jurisdictions.

In 2009, 38 horses made more than $100,000 in the Ontario Sires Stakes program, compared to 35 in New York and 17 in Pennsylvania. Thirteen horses made more than $200,000 in the Ontario program in 2009, compared to five in New York and just two in both Pennsylvania and Indiana.

Stallions such as Mister Big, Deweycheatumnhowe and Shadow Play are a strong bet to help widen Ontario’s lead on the world.