by OSS

Toronto, ON — Ranked the number three filly on the Ontario Sires Stakes circuit last season, Muscle Baby Doll has her connections hoping for an even higher finish in 2015 after she kicked off her sophomore campaign with an impressive Gold Series win at Mohawk Racetrack on Thursday evening.

Starting from post three in the second of two C$105,000 Gold Legs, driver Doug McNair of Guelph, ON settled favourite Muscle Baby Doll on the rail in fourth through the early going, watching Tymal Signature reach the quarter pole in :27. When last year’s number two filly, Stubborn Belle, went off stride trying to take command just past the quarter, the 2014 Grassroots champion Second Sister stepped to the outside and McNair tipped Muscle Baby Doll out in her wake.

Tymal Signature rang up a :56.3 half and a 1:25.1 three-quarters, but by the time the fillies turned for home Muscle Baby Doll was in clear command and the Muscle Mass daughter sailed home a 6-1/4 length winner in a personal best 1:53.3. Second Sister settled for the runner-up spot and Aspen California finished third.

“The Super Final last year, if you watch that replay (http://ow.ly/OvOFn), you can see that going into this year we felt pretty good about her,” said trainer Tony O’Sullivan after Thursday’s win. “She went really, really well. She came from a long way back and never gave up.”

The Cambridge, ON resident added that, while she will never tower over the competition, Muscle Baby Doll did gain some stature over the winter, which should pay off through her sophomore campaign.

“There were some good fillies last year. Danielle Hall was good and Stubborn Belle was good, and we were never very far away from them,” O’Sullivan noted.

“She was quite a bit smaller than both of them, I mean she still is, but she’s a lot, lot bigger than she was last year,” he continued. “I think if you really watch her races probably a lot of the trips decided the first, second and third between all of them. The others won more races and stuff, but I don’t necessarily think they were a ton better. They may have been a little more mature.”

Muscle Baby Doll captured one Gold Series trophy last season and finished second, third and fourth in three other Gold Leg appearances before delivering the runner-up effort in the Super Final that impressed O’Sullivan and owners F. Bellino and Sons LLC of Bronxville, NY. In nine freshman starts Muscle Baby Doll earned $ 134,871 .

Since returning to action in early May, Muscle Baby Doll has posted three wins and one third in four starts and banked an additional $ 61,488.

The other C$105,000 Gold Leg went to first time Ontario Sires Stakes winner Elegant Serenity, who rushed from sixth to first in the stretch for trainer-driver Roger Mayotte of Mississauga, ON. Juanitas Fury and The Grand Filly finished second and third in the 1:53.4 mile.

Bred and owned by Doug Millard of Woodstock, ON, Elegant Serenity is the daughter of top Ontario trotting stallion Kadabra and former Ontario Sires Stakes superstar Elegantimage, who was the 3-year-old trotting filly champion in 1997 before going on to earnings of almost $1 million. In 2000 the Woodbine Entertainment Group named a major 3-year-old trotting filly stake after Elegantimage, which will be contested at Mohawk in mid-September and could feature Elegant Serenity.

In the meantime, Elegant Serenity and Muscle Baby Doll will take aim at a second Gold Leg trophy on July 5 at Rideau Carleton Raceway. Mohawk Racetrack’s Ontario Sires Stakes program continues on Monday, June 22 with six Grassroots divisions for the 3-year-old trotting fillies.