Standardbred owner Dan Walker of Cold Creek Standardbred in Grafton, Ont. got a phone call from his trainer, Murray Brethour of Sunderland, Ont., about a week after sending Brethour one of the farm’s homebreds in the late fall of 2020.
On Saturday night (Oct. 15), Walker remembered, “Murray calls me and says, 'You know what you’ve got here with this colt? It’s good!’”
In his $225,000 Ontario Sire Stakes (OSS) Super Final for three-year-old pacing males at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Brethour showed his foresight was pretty good as well, as the Betterthancheddar gelding Cold Creek Queso exploded to a 5-1/4-length victory at the expense of a good field in 1:50. The win came two weeks after he won his most recent Ontario Sire Stakes Gold event in 1:48.3 under more favourable conditions for a fast mile.
The 4-5 public choice off that big win, Cold Creek Queso was forwardly-placed early by driver Sylvain Filion, sitting third as Kolby Two Step took the lead away from Magical Arthur just after a :26.4 quarter. Filion had plenty of horse in front of him and decided to take matters into his own hands, pulling his charge to the outside and making the lead late on the backstretch, approaching a moderate half of :55.
After that fairly soft work assignment in the first half of the race, Cold Creek Queso had more than enough to finish out the task at hand, reaching the three-quarters in 1:23 with longshot Century Inspector tiring after having to challenge without cover and second-choice Ron poised on that one’s back and ready to gain wide.
But nobody was gaining on Cold Creek Queso on this night. Filion was just a passenger as the three-year-old expanded his lead seemingly with every step.
Betterhavemymoney launched a sharp rally on the far outside late to just catch Ron for second money, giving sire Betterthancheddar a one-two finish in the glamour boys division of the Ontario program.
Cold Creek Queso was a surprise winner at age two in the OSS Grassroots Championship and continued to improve from two to three. As he has developed, so has his bankroll, which now sits at $246,152 for 2022 and $296,164 lifetime.
Sylvain Filion of Milton, Ont., a member of one of world harness racing’s leading families based in Quebec, noted after the race that, “This horse is very easy to drive – you can race him from behind or in front and he always shows up.”
Asked about his tactical trip this evening, Filion said, “I moved him to the lead down the back[stretch] and once we got the lead, he started to get a little lazy on me, so I popped out his earplugs [which restrict incoming noise; when popped out via an attached string, the horse gets the signal to increase his effort]. He was good and strong after that – he took right off.”
Cold Creek Queso was bred by Debora Stokes, also of Grafton, and co-owner of Cold Creek Standardbred.
To view Saturday's harness racing results, click the following link: Saturday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
(Ontario Racing)