Benoit Baillargeon
Baillargeon hope to celebrate Canada Day with OSS success
At 0h16, on June 30, 2021 • By NEWSROOM/ONTARIO SIRES STAKES
Thursday’s (July 1) Ontario Sires Stakes season opener at Woodbine Mohawk Park will be a festive affair for the Baillargeon family as they send out hopefuls in both the 3-year-old trotting colt and trotting filly Gold Series events.
First up for team Baillargeon is HP Mama B, who will start from post six in the first C$102,200 3-year-old trotting filly Gold division and the first race on the Canada Day program. The winner of last fall’s Grassroots Championship as a 2-year-old, HP Mama B is off to a strong start in her sophomore campaign, finishing third in her June 12 debut and scoring a 1:54.3 victory on June 18 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
“Last year as a 2-year-old, well she was very big and she had a few quirks at the beginning, but she finished the year pretty good and she had a real good winter. And this year she has no trotting hobbles and she looks very strong,” said trainer Ben Baillargeon. “I think she’s Gold material. She’s a lot more mature this year than she was last year, and she’s big and strong, so why not? I don’t say she’s going to win, but I think she deserves to be there.”
Baillargeon bred HP Mama B, who is a daughter of stallion Royalty For Life and mare Winters Jewel, and the filly is co-owned by his wife Guylaine Picard in partnership with Celine Paquin. At two HP Mama B put $57,552 in her delighted owner’s pockets and she has added $10,168 through her two sophomore starts.
“I think she’ll make her money and she might be a surprise,” said Baillargeon. “She only has two starts so far and I think she’ll get a little bit better too. Right now she is pretty good, but I think she’ll get a little bit better.”
As she has been throughout her career, HP Mama B will be driven by Sylvain Filion on Thursday and the pair will face eight rivals in the first race, all of them veterans of the Ontario Sires Stakes program.
Filion had also piloted Dealin With Dewey in his first two sophomore starts, but he opted to drive reigning Super Final champion Fashion Frenzie from post five in the first C$100,600 trotting colt Gold division, so Mario Baillargeon will step into the race bike behind his brother’s second OSS starter. The pair will start from post three in the field of seven, which goes postward in race three.
Post time for Thursday’s program is 7 p.m. and for the first time in 2021 Woodbine Mohawk Park will welcome a limited number of fans for the live racing program. Reservations are required.
