M1 - Meadowlands Barn Notes

Won The West To Be Retired Friday Night At Meadowlands

Won The West, two-time divisional champion and career winner of $3.9 million, will be officially retired on Friday night at the Meadowlands Racetrack.

The 8-year-old son of Western Hanover will lead the post parade for the William R. Haughton Memorial, race 10, before being honored with a retirement blanket.  Won The West, trained by Ron Burke, ends his career with 36 wins, 24 seconds and 15 thirds from 109 starts.  He amassed a bankroll of $3,939,836 while capturing consecutive Dan Patch Awards as best older male pacer in 2010 and 2011 and winning back-to-back Breeders Crown trophies in 2009 and 2010 (taking a mark of 1:47 in the latter). 

Won The West is owned by James Koehler’s Country Club Acres, Strollin Stable and William J. Robinson.     

Rebeka Bayama Bids For Monstrous Victory In Golden Girls Final

Rebeka Bayama carries the Bayama Farms banner into Friday’s $218,850 Golden Girls at the Meadowlands Racetrack, and for owner and breeder, Yves Filion, his pacing mare conjures memories of his top horse, Goliath Bayama, who was known as “The Monster from Montreal.”

Rebeka Bayama is rated at 5-1 on the morning line from post eight in a field of 11.  The Golden Girls is carded as race seven.  The 12-race, stakes-filled program is the final live presentation of the 2012 Championship Meet, featuring Round 1 of the Vernon/Meadowlands Drivers Championship, a car giveaway, drawings for Bruce Springsteen VIP packages, a Diamond Dig, live music and fireworks.  Post time for the card is 6:35 p.m.     

In addition to overseeing 70 horses at his Bayama Farms in Saint-Andre-D’argent, Quebec, Filion, 65, and his son Justin, 38, operate a 15-horse stable at BayCairn Training Center in Campbellville, Ontario.

Yves is a brother to Hall of Famer Herve Filion and the youngest of eight boys [and two girls].  His son Sylvain Filion will be back in the sulky behind Rebeka Bayama on Friday.  Pat Lachance is handling the training duties in New Jersey. 

Rebeka Bayama has earned $442,996, with 20 wins in 39 career starts.

“She’s a real Quebec bred horse,” noted Filion proudly.  “I broke and raised Rebeka Bayama’s sire, Leader Bayama and her dam Joyce Bayama.  Leader Bayama is by Artsplace and he’s a three-quarter brother to Goliath Bayama [1:48.1, $1,503,428], who is by Abercrombie.  They’re both out of Topaz Blue Chip, and she was one heck of a mare.  She won an O’Brien Award as a three-year-old.  She was full of crazy speed.  Now that good breeding is coming back around through Rebeka.”

Filion realized Rebeka Bayama was a special talent early on, but was willing to wait on her.

"I only raced her two starts as a two-year-old,” recalled Filion.  “That was the first year there were no longer Quebec Sires Stakes.  When she won her second start she showed me lots of potential.  As a three-year-old, she won in 1:49.4 at Mohawk [winning the Town Pro Series Final].  As a four-year-old, she was dominant in the Open here on the WEG circuit.  This past January, she won her first two starts in the Open, and I turned her out again.  I wanted to concentrate on the big summer stakes.  Now she’s coming to her peak form again.” 

In the $253,700 Lady Liberty on Hambletonian Day, Rebeka Bayama launched a furious rally off live cover to finish a close second to Put On A Show in a world record of 1:47.3.

“I watched the Lady Liberty from Mohawk where I was racing a horse,” said Filion.  “In the stretch, I wasn’t a bit surprised because she always finishes strong.  The week before in the Roses Are Red she had the nine-hole and she came up sick.  Sylvain said she should’ve been better.  She was full of mucus in her trachea.  So, I was glad there were no eliminations for the Lady Liberty.  That gave us time to treat her with antibiotics.

“Anyway, she raced super in the Lady Liberty.  I think she lost a length or two in the first turn.  Sylvain had to grab her back when a horse made a break in front of her.  Put On A Show was lucky the rail opened up for her.  I was very pleased with my mare, and I knew her next race was going to be even better.”

Filion was dead on.  With Hall of Famer Mike Lachance catch-driving, Rebeka Bayama followed up with a career best of 1:48.3 in last week’s Mares Invitational, a perfect tune up for the Golden Girls.

“Last week, Mike Lachance told me she won very easily and in the last eighth she changed gears.  He told Herve Filion in the winner’s circle he’s never driven a mare like that before.  I know she’s got post eight on Friday, but I’d rather be outside in a field like this.  Hopefully, they mix it up and we get a good trip.”    

Yves speaks fondly of his top trainee, Goliath Bayama, who won both the Breeders Crown in 1:48.4 and then the US Pacing Championship in 1:48.2 with thunderous rallies a week apart back in 2001 at the Big M. 

 “Goliath Bayama gave me some special memories when he won those back-to-back stakes in 2001.  He was ‘The Monster from Montreal’ invading the Meadowlands.  I’ll never forget those races.  Serge Godin was partners with me on him and eventually bought me out.  The horse is 16 now and still does some stud duty in Ontario.” 

Despite watching his industry falter in Quebec, Filion remains positive.

“The business is coming back a bit there.  They just opened two more off track wagering sites and they’re busy.  They’re going to race at Trois-Rivieres in September.  There will be a 10 or 15 programs for Quebec Sires Stakes.

“Despite everything, I’m still optimistic.  My feeling is they can’t close Woodbine nor Mohawk, but we were saying that in Montreal and they shut it down [Hippodrome de Montreal].  It was tough.  People had to find other work.  For me though, in some way, it was a good thing.  I was on a wheel I couldn’t get off.  I was going like a crazy man, breeding, breaking and training.  I’m trying to reduce and go with more quality now.  At one time I had around 130 horses at the farm.  Fortunately, I did well in the Quebec Sires Stakes.

“I’m more positive in Ontario than I was in Quebec.  They were going to postpone the fall sales here [in Ontario), but the provincial government urged them not to because they were supposed to make some sort of major announcement soon.  We’ll see.  Sometimes it’s almost as if nobody really knows what to do now.”        

Young Gun McNair Looking for Aracache Hanover to Step Up in Haughton Final

Doug McNair believes his father’s trainee Aracache Hanover is about as ready as he’s going to be to pull an upset in Friday’s $431,400 William R. Haughton Memorial Final at the Meadowlands Racetrack.

McNair, 22, will leave from post five with the five-year-old son of Dragon Again, who is rated the 7-2 second choice on the morning line in the tenth race feature.  The 12-race, stakes-filled program is the final live presentation of the 2012 Championship Meet, featuring Round 1 of the Vernon/Meadowlands Drivers Championship, a car giveaway, drawings for Bruce Springsteen VIP packages, a Diamond Dig, live music and fireworks.  Post time is 6:35 p.m.  

McNair’s father, Gregg, trains Aracache Hanover, who sports a career bankroll of $1,317,196 for owners William Switala and James Martin of Clarence Center, NY.  The McNair’s are based in Guelph, Ontario.

In last year’s Haughton, Aracache Hanover and McNair set wicked fractions of :26.3, :53 and 1:20.1 before fading to sixth.  He comes off a gutsy second to Golden Receiver in the US Pacing Championship on Hambletonian Day, August 4, his fourth first-over trip in his last five starts.

“That’s just the way they’ve driven him,” said McNair.  “I used to always put him on the front, but he’s not leaving out of there like he used to.  Last year, I would move him and he just kind of sat out there.  He actually races well that way now.  I watched him last week and he was awesome.  He couldn’t have been driven differently and couldn’t have raced any better.”

The last time McNair drove Aracache Hanover, he finished fourth in the $174,735 Des Smith Classic at Rideau Carlton on July 15.

“In The Des Smith Classic, the breaks came on pretty good past the grandstand and through the second quarter,” noted McNair.  “I had to grab him up pretty good after firing him out of there.  We scoped him afterwards and he had flipped his palate.”

McNair acknowledges his main target on Friday is Golden Receiver and he has the utmost respect for his competition.

“Golden Receiver drew inside us again, so I might try to blast out of there and grab a two hole,” McNair speculated.  “Golden Receiver is raw speed.  He can leave in :25 and come home in :26.  I tried beating him out of there one time at Woodbine this year and he had me by two lengths past the eighth pole.” 

Aracache Hanover gave McNair his biggest win to date, the 2010 Confederation Cup, and the pacer has taken a while to reach top form this summer.

“My dad has done a great job getting our horse probably close to 100 percent right now.  He took a new lifetime mark of 1:48.1 in his Ben Franklin elimination at Pocono Downs [on June 23].  He’s in all the big free-for-all events.  He’ll step up and win one, and maybe on Friday.”

The McNairs, William Switala and James Martin also have Swinging Beauty in the $218,850 Golden Girls.  The daughter of Art Major ships in off three in a row at Mohawk and drew post 10 in an 11-horse dash, carded as race seven.    

“At the start of the year I was actually choosing off her because I was committed to another mare, Maureen Rocks.  Swinging Beauty has really come around.  She has been getting some good trips.  She’s not very big, and she only four, but she’s handled them.  She paced a 1:49.4 lifetime best two starts back.  Before that had she dropped in class, won easily and that bravened her up.  Last week, she actually came first up, she looked done out there, but she has a wicked brush to her. 

McNair was the youngest driver at age 18 to win $1 million in his first year of driving in 2008, the youngest to reach 1,000 wins at age 20 in 2010, and the youngest to notch $10 million in purses at age 21.