05 Aug, 2024
Grand River Raceway celebrated its 35th annual Industry Day on Monday, Aug. 5, welcoming fans and horseplayers to the reconfigured five-eighths mile track in Elora, Ont. The 11-race card was highlighted by finals for the $245,400 Winbak Farms Battle of Waterloo for Ontario-sired two-year-old male pacers and the $175,200 Battle of the Belles companion race for two-year-old pacing fillies. Doug McNair found redemption in the Winbak Farms Battle of Waterloo final, driving Stonebridge Wizard to the gelding's fourth lifetime win. The 5/2 second choice left strongly, followed from the pocket by Sterling Choice and Tyler Borth. Challenger Fifth And Five, in line to Jody Jamieson, came calling past the :26 opening quarter, but couldn't make front. Stonebridge Wizard battled back to the :53.1 half, with 3/5 favourite Fifth and Five parked first-over. The pacers were four-wide approaching three-quarters, as Out Of Ice (Trevor Henry) and Allstar Maniac (James MacDonald) stacked up outside of Fifth And Five, while McNair's horse maintained a half-length advantage to that point, reached in 1:22.1. Stonebridge Wizard kept ahead of Sterling Choice in a close, 1:51.2 battle to the wire. Tito N Cheddar (Louis-Philippe Roy) closed for show. Stonebridge Wizard , a gelded son of Dancin Lou-Odds On Magic, is owned by David Kryway of Amherstburg, Ont. The former $32,000 London Classic yearling, bred by Angie Stiller of London, Ont., yearling has four wins and a place finish in his first five career starts for trainer Jared Bako along with $93,800 in earnings. His Battle of Waterloo win time established a new track record for two-year-old male pacers, and surpassed his own Canadian seasonal record for two-year-old pacing geldings to become fastest of all for his age and gait on a Canadian five-eighths mile track this year. In the winners' circle, McNair explained his driving strategy, and coming back after being set back from the Battle of the Belles place finish. "Obviously you have to turn the page when something like that happens, and I didn't know how I was going to go about it," he said. "When I made the front so easy [with Stonebridge Wizard], I mean, no one did me any favours...As soon as I crossed over, I said, 'they're gonna have to go a pretty good half to get around me.' I was still think about letting Jody go [with Fifth And Five] ahead into the second turn, but I knew if I let him go, our race was over. We'd have no shot at winning." McNair praised Stonebridge Wizard's effort: "He was handy and he's a real nice colt. He's so professional." Assistant trainer Scott Bako said the 2024 Battle of Waterloo champion was always a barn favourite. "He's never really done a whole lot to disappoint us. He's just consistently kept getting stronger and stronger...He's a big, strong, rangy kind of a colt, and he is bigger than most of the colts who are in here as a two-year-old. He's a colt that does kind of set up where when they go more fractions in here, it will suit him, because he does cover the ground so well."