Military Time a favourite to win Prince of Wales Stakes; Best Chip takes Canadian Pacing Derby

Luster out of $400,000 race at Fort Erie

Published Sep 06, 2026  •  Last updated 12 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Thoroughbreds horses are trained at Woodbine Racetrack in preparation for the thoroughbred race season. Photo by Michael Burns /Woodbine Entertainment

As much as people want to see the first Canadian Triple Crown winner since 2002, it was clear just minutes after the King’s Plate that it won’t happen this year.
Trainer Josie Carroll said her dominant Plate-winning filly Luster would get a break from racing, skipping the rest of the Triple Crown series including Monday’s $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie.

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That leaves a field of eight to contest the border oval’s signature race. And it brings an added challenge for horseplayers in that no runner has run on dirt before.

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Military Time is the 2-1 morning-line choice off his second-place finish in the Plate, albeit 7-1/4 lengths behind Luster. The Mark Casse trainee has three other stakes places and two non-stakes wins. Fraser Aebly will ride.

Fire and Wine also takes another shot here. The Zeljko Krcmar-trained colt led the Plate field for the first half of the race and still had enough to finish third at 61-1. Imyourmedicineman (7th), Brachetto (8th), and Highwaytothemoon (9th) are the other Plate also-rans making the QEW trip. Brachetto won the Marine Stakes earlier while Highwaytothemoon took the Plate Trial Stakes.

Keepmypowderdry, who won his initial lifetime start on the Plate undercard, is in the field along with two maidens, Buium and Auntie’s Bambino.

Fort Erie also put together arguably its best undercard ever with two other stakes and four cup events. Splash of Bourbon heads the $150,000 Rondeau Bay Stakes. Humormeastory is favoured in the $150,000 Lake Erie Stakes.

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Garofoli leads the $32,000 Le Cinquieme Essai Cup. Periwinkle takes to the turf with 11 others in the $32,000 Molson Cup. Momaxie tries to be the inaugural winner of the $32,000 Richard Grubb Cup, named for the Hall of Fame jockey.

And in a Labour Day tradition, 10 horses led by Lasting Silence will contest the Puss n Boots Cup. Named in honour of a 1961 runner who decided in the stretch that the infield lake was more enticing than the finish line, the winning trainer and jockey of the $32,000 race will mark the occasion by diving into the same lake.

Best on display at Mohawk

The Grand Circuit kicked into high gear at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Saturday with three major stakes events.

Best Chip bettered a very strong field in the $705,000 Canadian Pacing Derby, winning in 1:46 4/5. Driven by Tim Tetrick, Best Chip got the lead early in the backstretch, overtaking Prince Hal Hanover. From there, he was able to withstand that pacer’s reply in the stretch while 4-5 favourite For Once Inmy Life made very little impression.

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“I knew the horse could just carry it,” Tetrick said. “Once I had seen the half pop up, I knew they had to catch me if they could.”

“The horse stayed strong all the way to the wire.”

Trained by Joe Bongiorno, Best Chip is now a 12-time winner. But this was by far the four-year-old’s biggest triumph.

In the $620,000 Maple Leaf Trot, Super Chapter got the win as the 4-5 favourite in 1:49 3/5, the fastest trotting mile ever at Mohawk.

Driven by Dexter Dunn, Super Chapter moved from fourth to first along the backstretch. The four-year-old faced inside pressure in the stretch from French Wine and some outside heat from Emoticon Legacy but grinded out the half-length win.

“He’s just so brave and so tough this horse,” Dunn said. “I knew we were going to need to knuckle down pretty good. But he’s so awesome to drive and he kicked on today.”

Trained by Marcus Melander, Super Chapter now has 19 career wins and over $3 million in earnings.

The $255,000 Milton Stakes introduced Canadian fans to Francent, a recent import to North America from New Zealand. Despite being surprised around the final turn when 24-1 longshot Louies Girl stormed to the lead, Francent re-took the lead early in the stretch and won at odds of 1-5 in 1:47 3/5, a Canadian record for older mare pacers. Louis-Philippe Roy drove the six-year-old for trainer Jacques Dupont.

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