Favourite Keep On Truckin claims Clarendon Stakes at Woodbine

Rising star Keep On Truckin motored away from his two-year-old foes to win the co-featured $125,000 Clarendon Stakes by open lengths on Saturday afternoon at Woodbine Racetrack.

Jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson steered the favoured chestnut gelding to the front-stepping score in the 5-1/2 furlong main track sprint for trainer Catherine Day Phillips and owners George P. Ledson, Brian W. Ledson and Anderson Farms Ontario Inc.

“He outbroke them – I mean, that’s what happens when you’ve got the experience – and so I had the jump on them and I just let him settle into a rhythm,” said Wilson.

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Sent postward as the 3-5 favourite in the field that was scratched down to four freshmen, Keep On Truckin set fractions of :22.46 and :44.99 while rebuffing a brief early bid by inside leaver Gelato Amore and outside pressure from Forester’s Fortune to the turn.

“The inside horse came to give us a little pressure, but he’s run before and he does everything like he’s done it a hundred times, so it was an easy cruise, just let him out a notch and let him get into his rhythm. He was only just getting into gear.”

Down the stretch, Keep On Truckin accelerated away from them all to win by 7-3/4-lengths in 1:03.07. Meyer came on to finish second with Gelato Amore and Forester’s Fortune following in third and fourth, respectively.

“This horse is a beast. He knows what he’s doing,” said Wilson. “Catherine’s said it in interviews before about how laid back he is about everything. I breezed him in the morning the other day and he just did it so easily and today, when the doors opened, he was all business and he went on with it.”

Bred in Ontario by Tim Meeuse and Arika Everatt-Meeuse, the Society’s Chairman-Colbra gelding was a $110,000 purchase from the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Yearling Sale. He was named by Brian Ledson as a surprise for his father George Ledson, founder of Cavalier Transportation Services.

The talented youngster was also untouchable in his career debut on July 7 winning the five-furlong race by nearly a dozen lengths.

“He trained very well into his first race and how well he ran was quite shocking really, for any horse to run that well and win that easily and come back and be very laidback and not revved up from it at all,” said Day Phillips. “I was afraid it was too much to ask for him to do the same again and he came and did the same again. He’s a very special horse.”