Possess The Will owns first ‘Crown’ elim for frosh-colt trotters

By Frank and Ray Cotolo

TORONTO, Ont. – Possess The Will (Donato Hanover) dominated the first freshman-boys trot Breeders Crown elimination at Woodbine Racetrack on Friday, Oct. 21, posting the victory in 1:56.1.

Magic Tonight (Andover Hall) finished second, Presdigitator (Kadabra) was third, Little Brown Fox (Muscles Yankee) was fourth and From Above (Donato Hanover) was fifth, completing the list of trotters earning berths for next week’s final.

Coming off of four wins in his last five races, Possess The Will took the second spot for driver Tim Tetrick in the first turn. Magic Tonight and Quit Smoking Now also left heading into the first turn.

“Tonight” cleared and “Possess” settled in the catbird seat while “Quit” sat in third. Tonight took the field by the quarter in :28.3.

Heading to the backstretch, Quit came first over and cleared the lead at the three-eighths. Ron Pierce pulled Tonight into second as Possess was smoothly trotting third on the inside. David Miller guided Quit on the engine by the half in :58.3 (:30).

Around the far turn, Possess challenged Quit with a first-over move for the lead. Then, Quit went on a bad break and backed up on the pylons. Possess inherited the lead coming to three-quarters. Tonight was behind him in second and Presdigitator, riding outside for most of the race, was closing from the back of the field, getting third as Tetrick took Possess to three-quarters in 1:27.1 (:28.3).

Possess had the lead coming into the stretch; Tonight was riding the pylons in second and Presdigitator applied pressure to the rest of the field while staying in third. Little Brown Fox was behind in fourth and the second-choice From Above, who began slowly inside of Presdigitator early, was about 5 lengths off Possess in fifth.

Possess was easily able to hold off Tonight and an ever-gaining Presdigitator (16-1) for the win. Little Brown Fox was fourth and From Above was the last qualifier for the final, finishing fifth. He paid $8 to win as the third choice.

Possess The Will is owned by Fashion Farms LLC and was bred by Hanover Shoe Farms, Inc.

Trainer Jim Campbell talked about some problems the winning colt had coming into October’s classic. “When he was [in Canada] for the ‘Wellwood’ he didn’t race well,” Campbell said. “It wasn’t his fault; we scoped him after the race and he was sick.

“We took him back home and got him ready for Lexington and he raced super out there, came here and won another big race. We couldn’t be more happy with him than we are tonight.”

Campbell was asked about how he felt about the first-over move the colt made to get to the top, which luckily took him out of the line of fire when Quit broke. Campbell said, “I’m thinking you got to pull him, he’s sitting third and we want a shot to go [in the final] and sitting in is not the way to do it.

“He’s the type of horse that if you come first over with him he can sit there and ride. He’s versatile; you can race him any way, it doesn’t matter.”

Campbell said he was happy to get a race over the track for his colt, “because coming off of Lexington and back to a stonedust track is a difference.”