While her 2025 has not lived up to the hype created from a blemish-free Canadian Horse of the Year-winning rookie season a year ago, Chantilly proved once again that there's no place like home, taking the C$300,000 Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Gold Super Final for 3-year-old pacing fillies at Woodbine Mohawk Park Saturday night (Oct. 11). In the process, she upped her lifetime stats at the seven-eighths-mile oval to 15 wins in just 16 tries.
The race played out predictably, as driver James MacDonald was in no hurry with Chantilly, who had drawn the rail in the eight-horse field. Simply The Best (driven by Jean Rene Plante, post five) and Perfectly Chic (Bob McClure, post seven) were away from the gate alertly, and that duo raced 1-2 around the first turn while Chantilly was in the three-hole before Simply The Best hit the quarter in 26 1/5.
MacDonald gave Chantilly the go-ahead after the field straightened up, and Chantilly responded with a quick brush to command just after the three-eighths. The Nick Gallucci trainee reached the half in 55 1/5 after a leisurely second fraction of 29 seconds.
The action heading to the far turn was limited to Wicked N Single (Louis-Philippe Roy, post three) moving first-over toward the front of the pack, but she never got all that close to the tandem of Chantilly and Simply The Best, who were 1-2 at three-quarters in 1:23.
It was then coronation time for the Queen of the Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS), who would reign supreme for a second straight year on the circuit.
The winner of 10 of 11 lifetime starts in the OSS program opened up some real estate in mid-stretch before polishing off another impressive win with a final quarter of 27 seconds. The final time of 1:50 on a chilly evening was just one-fifth of a second off her lifetime-best.
It was one length back to second-place finisher Simply The Best with Perfectly Chic third.
"Oh, it's a dream come true when you get to sit behind horses like her," MacDonald said. "She's just a Cadillac. She's given me so many thrills the last couple of years and it's just a real honor to get to do it with [owner] George [Millar] and Nick; we've been doing this a while together. It's been a good partnership and I can't wait to see what the future holds.
"She's always good. Her off nights, she's still good. She's just a pro and she just knows how to win. She's done a lot of it in her career and it's just great to see her win the Super Final. Not too many horses go back-to-back, so that's another feather in her cap."
Chantilly, as the 1-9 favorite, paid $2.10 to win.
"It's been a frustrating year, but she really pieced it together the last couple of weeks," Gallucci said of his prized pupil, who has dealt with some illness issues. "I'm really happy with the last couple of weeks that she's had. Last week [in an eight-length romp in 1:50 2/5], she was deadly and I just can't thank the horse enough for the ride that she's taken us on.
"[She's] an absolute pleasure to have and a pleasure to train."
When Mohawk's John Rallis asked about the possibility of Chantilly entering the Breeders Crown, Gallucci was quick to respond.
"Absolutely," he said. "We'll see how she comes out of the race, but that's definitely the plan; to enter Tuesday morning for the Breeders Crown elimination Saturday."
Millar Farms owns and bred Chantilly, a brown daughter of Big Jim—Shiraz Seelster. Millar was predictably pleased in the winner's circle.
"She's a great filly and, hopefully, we'll get another couple of weeks out of her and then she can have a nice winter off," he said.
Millar made it clear where he stands on the province's program.
"I think I've said this quite a few times," he said. "To me, this is the best program around. We saw what Beau Jangles can do and he hasn't left the province. We breed some good horses and you don't have to go that far to make money, so I think it's the best program dollar-for-dollar around. We'll always breed up here."
Chantilly has now amassed 15 wins from 18 lifetime starts, good for earnings of C$1,293,462.
► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter
Last year, Crack Shot became the first horse in history to win both the Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Grassroots Final and the Gold Super Final. This year, the son of Bettor's Delight-Beautyonthebeach joined a select group of Ontario stars that have won Super Finals in back-to-back years.
Crack Shot and driver Doug McNair won the Super Final for 3-year-old pacing colts and geldings on Saturday (Oct. 11) at Woodbine Mohawk Park in dominating fashion, exploding away in the stretch to post a 5 1/2 length win in a career-best 1:49 2/5.
Starting from post five in the field of 10, Crack Shot sat third in the early going as 99-1 shot Control Rocks (Tyler Borth) led the field through a 25 4/5 opening quarter and a 54 2/5 half. Doug had Crack Shot out and rolling before the 1:22 three-quarter station and then pulled away in the stretch to defeat Fifth And Five (Jody Jamieson). Boxer Seelster (Trevor Henry) was third, followed by Control Rocks and Allstar Maniac (James MacDonald).
"I didn't know how the race was going to shape up," McNair told Woodbine broadcaster John Rallis. "There was a couple on the outside that I thought might take a shot getting out of there, but we were speeding pretty good up front. I thought I had the best horse and, you know, he's been getting better and better towards the end of the year, so I just didn't want to get him in any trouble."
Sent off as the 1-2 favorite, Crack Shot paid $3.10 for the win.
It was the third Gold triumph of the year for the Gregg McNair trainee, who also finished a close second in two other Gold outings in 2025. Gregg, who collected his sixth Johnston Cup victory as the top trainer in the OSS program said it's been a challenge to keep Crack Shot fit this year.
"He had some problems there on his left side and we were working on the wrong thing to start with, then we just learned what it was towards the end of the year," Gregg said. "He had a knee bothering him a bit and once we got doing the maintenance work on that, it sure helped him a lot."
Crack Shot improved to 6-4-1 in 14 starts on the year and 11-5-1 in 22 lifetime outings. The colt has seasonal earnings of C$495,335 and a lifetime bankroll of C$734,160.
Gregg owns Crack Shot with London Knights coach and former NHLer Dale Hunter, Frank Brundle and George Kerr.
Brundle said he was happy Crack Shot won the Grassroots and Super Final last year and repeated in the latter this year.
"We did it again," Brundle said. "I was very happy with how he progressed and how well he's doing."
Hunter, who has coached the Knights to back-to-back Memorial Cup championships, said he fulfilled his father, Dick Hunter's dying wish to own a top horse. Crack Shot was purchased for $205,000 at the 2023 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale.
--press release (Ontario Sires Stakes)--