Two of the best recent advertisements for the CTHS Ontario Yearling Sale had big efforts on Saturday, August 1. With the sale just a month away, the incredible guys PARAMOUNT PRINCE and MY BOY PRINCE both put on shows in their races at Woodbine and Colonial Downs.
Paramount Prince has been a wonderful fellow for owners Mike Langlois and Gary Barber, the latter who bought into the son of Society’s Chairman as a two-year-old four years ago. Purchased privately for $21,000 following the 2021 sale from breeder Ericka Rusnak, Paramount Prince was just the second horse owned by Langlois and wife Charmaine. The gelding has taken them on a thrill ride, winning the King’s Plate in 2023 and being named Champion Three-Year-Old and collecting two graded stakes races in 2024. He was voted Champion Older Male Main Track that year.
This weekend, Paramount Prince, trained by Mark Casse, was making his fourth start as a six-year-old in the Grade 3 Seagram Cup and seeking his first stakes win in two years since he won the the 2024 Seagram. He had won an optional claiming race last fall and this past May and was coming off a second-place finish by a neck to Seagram rival Runaway Again in the June 27 Dominion Day Stakes.
Ridden this year by Fraser Aebly, Paramount Prince easily flew to his favourite spot, the early lead, out of the gates at the start of the 1 1/16 mile Seagram. He was quite sweated up on a warm day, but only had mild pressure from longshot Twin City into the backstretch.
Meanwhile 2025 King’s Plate winner Mansetti, off since May when he was burned out in a pace duel with Paramount Prince, brushed the side of the gate with an awkward start and then lost his path when rivals squeezed together in front of him. He was quickly trailing in last place, some eight lengths behind ‘Prince’, hoping for some pace to run at.
The fractions were Paramount Prince-friendly, however: 23.82, 47.77 and 1:12.47. Jockey Pietro Moran set Mansetti alight at the quarter pole and had his gelding swoop around almost everyone while four-wide, but Runaway Again, the 2024 Prince of Wales winner, was moving better. Paramount Prince and Runaway Again sprinted away to their own match race again with the former winning the nose bob on the wire.
Runaway Again, owned by Stronach Stables, was a well clear second over Sedbury’s Ghost, Rapid Test and War Court. Mansetti dropped back to finish sixth.
The time was 1:43.24. Notorious Gangster, expected to be a contender, was a stewards’ scratch.
Paramount Prince, from Rusnak’s super mare Platinum Steel, is now nine for 24 in his career and he has earned $1,155,563.
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Barber had another nice win from an Ontario yearling purchase when his other gritty gelding, MY BOY PRINCE, came from far back to win the $154,000 Val Clief Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs on the Colonial Downs turf on Saturday. Ridden by John Velazquez, My Boy Prince, a $110,000 sale-topper four years ago, got a hot pace to run at in the Van Clief and went from seventh to first in a blink for his 10th career win in 27 starts. The son of Cairo Prince, bred by Murray Smith, has won three stakes in a busy 2026 and he has now earned over $1.589 million.
Read more about breeder Murray Smith here.
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