by Kimberly Rinker, Administrator, Ohio Standardbred Development Fund

Northfield, OH — When Let’s Get Started won her $40,000 Ohio Sire Stake on Monday night (Aug. 15) at Northfield Park, breeder Richard McClelland, who owns the daughter of Dejarmbro-Tori Ann in partnership with his wife Joyce couldn’t have been happier.

The filly not only set a new track record of 1:57 in the process but her name also honors Richard’s mother, a native of Ireland who lived to be 94.

JJ Zamaiko photo

Let’s Get Started set a track record of 1:57 in winning her Ohio Sire Stake race.

The McClellands, who hail from Zanesville, Ohio, are best known as the co-owners of last year’s Hambletonian winner Pinkman. However, they are also heavily invested in the Ohio Sires Stakes program, having owned Standardbreds for four decades.

Trained by Bobby Brower, 9-5 Let’s Get Started sat third through fractions of :29.1 and :57.4 before challenging the leading Chim Swift (Ronnie Wrenn Jr.) and taking over the lead at the 1:27.3 three-quarter marker. The solidly-trotting filly then used a :29.2 final brush to sweep under the wire first.

The victory — Let’s Get Started’s third in four lifetime starts — pushed the filly’s bankroll to a hefty $70,300. She was second in the first leg of this series and captured leg two in 1:56.3 — setting a new track record at Scioto Downs on July 19 for her gender, gait and age.

“It’s great to have a 2-year-old that has established new track records at both Scioto and Northfield,” Richard admitted.

Let’s Get Started is the seventh of eight foals out of her dam, the S J’s Photo mare Tori Ann — who the McClellands campaigned to $104,741 in earnings.

“Dick Rankin raced Tori Ann for us,” Richard explained. “She was a Pennsylvania-bred filly that I named after my granddaughter.”

Tori Ann took a mark of 1:57.2f and when she retired to the breeding shed in 2007, the McClellands decided to name every foal out of her after something to do with Richard’s mother.

“Tori Ann’s second foal (a daughter of Muscles Yankee) was named Shanty Irish,” Richard noted. “That was because my mother grew up in an area in Ireland where most of the people were quite poor and lived in shanties.”

Shanty Irish took a 5-year-old mark of 1:55f en route to winning 11 races and $125,739.

The McClellands then named her 2012 foal She Wore Red (by Yankee Glide) 4,1:53.2f ($156,575), since Richard’s mother always dressed in red clothing.

Tori Ann’s 2013 foal — christened Milligan’s School 3,1:53.2f ($490,226) — is a half-sister to Let’s Get Started.

“My mother went to school for eight years in Ireland in a one-room school house,” Richard remembered. “And the school was named Milligan, so that’s how this colt got his name.”

And Let’s Get Started?

“When my mother was 82, my wife Joyce gave her a diary, and the first thing my mother wrote in there was ‘I’m 82-years-old, let’s get started,’” Richard said.

A new Northfield Park track record for 2-year-old pacing fillies was established this same evening when the Brian Brown-conditioned Glorious Intent scored a 1:54 clocking in the final OSS division. Owned and bred by the Emerald Highlands Farm of Mount Vernon, Ohio, the daughter of No Pan Intended-Rock For Glory stopped the clock in 1:54 for driver Chris Page.

Ohio Sires Stakes continue Tuesday (Aug. 16) at Scioto Downs, with nine $40,000 divisions for 2-year-old pacing and trotting colts and geldings. Post time is 2 p.m. (EDT).