Benefitting from a summer vacation in which she had time to recover from attempts in tough stakes races, ELLA IT IS (Point of Entry) won her first added-money race on November 21 at Woodbine, taking the restricted Ashbridge’s Bay Stakes for Ontario sired three-year-old fillies. The Ashbridge’s Bay was the last of four races in the ONTARIO SIRED HERITAGE SERIES for three-year-old fillies and at 1 1/16 miles, the longest of the races that are run at Woodbine and Fort Erie on dirt, Tapeta and turf. The top six finishers in each race earn points and the top three points earners at the end of the series receive cash awards of $20,000, $10,000 and $5,000.
Also on Friday, the Lake Ontario Stakes, the final race for the colts & geldings division, was run and was won by KEKOA.
Neither of the points leaders heading into the last legs on Friday were in the final stakes and in the end those two leaders, RHAENRYA, a filly owned by Al and Bill Ulwelling and trained by Kevin Attard, and GO KART MOZART, a gelding owned by Frank DiGuilio and trained by Bob Tiller, wound up holding their leads.
The Ashbridge’s Bay, however, was a good win for Ella It Is, owned by Heste Sport Inc. of Rene Hunderup and bred by Norse Ridge Farm of Hunderup and wife Darlene. The Point of Entry filly was stakes-placed at two in Ontario-sired races and won an optional claiming race in her second outing in 2025, but runs in the Grade 3 Selene and $500,000 Woodbine Oaks did not work and she went on a break.
Ella It Is came back in September and won an optional claiming race and finished second in another before her win on Friday. Under Pietro Moran, Ella It Is sat a perfect trip in the Ashbridge’s Bay, stalking the pace from the beneficial rail path before tipping out and powering to victory. The lightly-raced Hint, by Silent Name (Jpn) and longshot Peace Posey rounded out the top three and none of those three had been in any previous Heritage races. Ella It Is raced 1 1/16 miles on a very slow Tapeta with plenty of kickback in 1:47.01.
Rhaenyra, by Reload, was bred by the Ulwellings and is from their mare Starmaline by Star Guitar. Rhaenyra won the Georgian Bay Stakes and was second by a neck in the Rondeau Bay early in the series. Her 15 points were enough to win the first-place bonus.
Speaking of Northern Dawn Stables’ Reload, his son KEKOA won the Lake Ontario for 10 points and that moved the bay gelding into third place for a $5,000 bonus. Kekoa has been a tough luck fellow since a nice juvenile campaign that saw him place second, third and fourth in stakes races. Over the winter, the Catherine Day Phillips trained gelding sadly lost an eye.
He finished second in the Lake Superior Stakes as part of the series and recently won an optional claiming race on the grass. The Lake Ontario set up well for Kekoa and jockey Austin Adams as the pace was fast and the pair stayed close to the good rail path. Adams moved Kekoa in the 2 path around the turn, between rivals, while Plate Trial winner Sedburys Ghost move extremely wide against the bias. Heavily-favoured Ciunas came from last and was following Sedburys Ghost, but Kekoa got the jump on his rivals, and the rail, and kept the lead, holding off Ciunas to win in 1:45.35.
Kekoa is owned by Stephan and Rita Shefsky, Toby and Willy Kruh, Dan Vella and Day Phillips’ Kingfield Farm. Purchased for $57,000 from the 2023 CTHS Yearling Sale at Woodbine, Kekoa was bred by Mark Dodson. This is the first foal to race for the British-bred mare Henley Hill, whose own second dam is the great TOUSSAUD, dam of Grade 1 winners EMPIRE MAKER, HONEST LADY, CHESTER HOUSE AND CHISELLING.
And it was GO KART MOZART who won the first-place bonus with 25 points in the Heritage Series. The DiGiulio-bred won the Lake Huron and Lake Erie Stakes and was third in the Lake Superior.
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