by Greg Gangle, WEG media

Toronto, ON — Thirteen 3-year-old pacing colts and geldings contested a pair of C$25,000 Autumn Stakes eliminations on Saturday night (Dec. 3) at Woodbine with Road Untraveled and Modern Legend finding the winner’s circle.

Road Untraveled scored a narrow victory in a time of 1:52.4.

After capturing a pair of longshot victories in Friday night’s Autumn Stakes eliminations for sophomore pacing fillies, driver Mike Saftic once again lived up to the task as he guided Road Untraveled to a 25-1 upset win, paying $58.80 in the first elimination.

Saftic’s decision to use off the pace tactics proved to be the winning move as Mach My Word (Jody Jamieson) blasted past the opening panel in a hot :25.2. Adventure Bound (Sylvain Filion) protected rail position and was in the pocket with Full Circle King (Phil Hudon) taken back to third.

Jamieson and Mach My Word didn’t tap the breaks heading towards the half as they brushed past that station in a quick :53.4. Saftic, sitting fifth with Road Untraveled, angled his charge to the outside before three-quarters, but still was nine lengths off Mach My Word, who led past three-quarters in 1:22.4.

Down the stretch, Mach My Word began to tire as Road Untraveled and Del Rio Seelster (Scott Zeron) were exploding from the backfield. Saftic angled Road Untraveled towards the inside and the son of Grinfromeartoear-Ivory Tower scored a narrow victory in the final strides in a new lifetime best clocking of 1:52.4, over Del Rio Seelster. A tiring Mach My Word stayed for third with Adventure Bound finishing fourth.

“I was pretty content where I was sitting,” Saftic said. “They were going really fast fractions and at the top of the stretch, I thought I would hit the board because the front end was getting tired. My horse really dug in and raced terrific.”

Road Untraveled, trained by Mark Cecile, lifted his career earnings to C$35,190 for owner 1187422 Ontario Inc. The bay now has a career record of 3-0-0 in 10 career starts.

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Jack Moiseyev guided Modern Legend to a 1:52.1 victory in the second elim.

In the second and final elimination, it was the David Drew-trained, bred and owned Modern Legend scoring the victory as the favorite in 1:52.1.

Pisti (Phil Hudon) acted quickly from the start and struck command before the opening panel in :27. Heading towards the half, Jack Moiseyev angled Modern Legend out from the pocket and reached the front. Driver Keith Oliver was also on the move from third with Lyons Johnny, but Moiseyev wouldn’t let Oliver clear to the front, so he elected to drop back into the three hole.

Modern Legend would lead past the half in :55.3 and three-quarters in 1:24.1.

Down the stretch, Modern Legend was under a comfortable hand-drive as Moiseyev guided the son of Modern Art-Ruby Cam to a three length victory in a new lifetime best clocking of 1:52.1. Lyons Johnny stayed for second, over a hard-closing Lil Roy (Scott Zeron).

“He had a good week leading up to this race,” Drew said. “He was strong down the stretch. We will see how he comes out of this race over the next few days in preparation for the final.”

With the victory, Modern Legend lifted his career earnings to C$46,085 and now boasts a record of 4-2-0 from eight lifetime starts.

Next Saturday’s C$60,000 final will begin with the following post positions assigned. 1. Road Untraveled, 2. Del Rio Seelster, 3. Modern Legend, 4. Mach My Word, 5. Adventure Bound, 6. Lyons Johnny, 7. Emerging Grin, 8. Pisti, 9. Justlikejessejames and 10. Lil Roy.