From value-priced yearling to Ontario Sired Spring Series favorite.

by Melissa Keith

Canada’s fastest 3-year-old pacer of 2023 was set to return this Saturday night (April 22) at Woodbine Mohawk Park (after this story was filed), facing nine other colts and geldings in the Ontario Sired Spring Series Final. No Control (p, 3, 1:51.4s; $26,871) drew post 10 after capturing both preliminary legs for driver Tyler Jones, setting the seasonal record for his division with ease last Friday night (April 14).

No Control swept past leader Artsalive at the quarter pole, reached in :27.4, and maintained advantage on the front end for the remainder of the mile. Unchallenged through the :56.4 half and 1:25 three-quarters, driver Jones glanced back in deep stretch. Fast-closing Nightime Dancer passed pocket-sitting Artsalive for place, but No Control had no trouble reaching the wire over two lengths ahead of them.

“I was looking back to gauge the distance between other horses,” Jones said. “I knew Jody [Jamieson] was driving a decent horse [Nightime Dancer]. I wanted to make sure No Control was going to win, albeit with some reserve. Simply trying to manage the horse and ration his speed while he’s still learning to race.”

Announcer Ken Middleton summed up the decisive finish: “No Control barely took a deep breath as he wins the Ontario Sired Spring Series in 1:51.4, home in :26.4 under a death grip.”

The gelded son of Control The Moment—Dani Hanover is owned by trainer Tan Micallef of Moffat, ON, Keira Liberte of Hagersville, ON and Ian Clarke of Guelph, ON.

His story is not that of the typical “glamor boy.” Micallef called him “the underdog.

“He is the second foal of an unraced dam,” Micallef said. “Dani Hanover’s firstborn, Head Honcho (p, 4, 1:56.4s; $21,025) overcame a stall injury to come back with three wins this year, the most recent at Mohawk. He was unraced when [No Control] was going through the [2021] sale. So, the mare had nothing. He was a good-looking horse too, Head Honcho, in the video.” 

Dani Hanover was being offered in the 2021 Harrisburg mixed sale, selling in foal to Control The Moment.

“He’s not Captaintreacherous, but I like them, myself,” Micallef said.

The Art Major—Danielles All Aces mare was sold to Crystal Springs Farm of Millerburg, OH for just $7,000.

No Control sold for just $9,000 as a yearling at the 2021 Harrisburg sale and has made just five lifetime starts, all at Mohawk for Jones and Micallef. After winning his first qualifier there on Dec. 2, 2022, the 2-year-old gelding closed in a brisk :26.2 for show in his first race, Dec. 8. He broke his maiden Dec. 22, 2022, opening up by five lengths to take a freshman mark of 1:53. At publication deadline, he was undefeated in his last four starts, winning each by a length or more.

The gelding’s freshman debut at Mohawk wasn’t postponed by any issues preventing an earlier start.

“That was my own decision,” Micallef said. “I didn’t even pay him up to the Ontario Sires Stakes as a 2-year-old because I didn’t want to push him. I mean, realistically, we paid $9,000 for him… If you get a racehorse, that’s great. If you get a good racehorse, that’s even better, right? But for $9,000… You know, I’m just being realistic.”

The trainer’s objective was simply to have a “nice 3-year-old” who could go on to compete as an overnight horse at his home track.

“He’s lightly raced because that was the plan anyway,” Micallef said. “We’ll take it easy with him. He showed some talent. At the end of December, we gave him a break and then brought him back for April.”

When not on the track, No Control is usually turned out at Micallef’s farm, a short distance from Mohawk.

“He’s out like 24-7,” he said. “He’s got his own shed, he’s got hay out there. I mean, if I was a horse, I wouldn’t want to be in a stall 23 hours a day… I look at it from their perspective.”

Micallef said he’s pleased with the big brown gelding’s progress and personality.

“He’s really good,” he said. “He loves being outside. I’ll jog him for half an hour, I’ll do him up and he goes right back out, that’s pretty much it. If he missed a week [of racing] I train him; otherwise, I just jog him.”

He noted that No Control’s regular driver shared his high opinion of the gelding: “I know Tyler [Jones] likes him a lot.”

Jones agreed: “I knew when I first sat behind him, in a schooling race and then in his first qualifier, that he was a strong horse. In his third lifetime start, he showed me that he had a quick turn of foot and a nice long stride when I let him pace at the five-eighths pole. Since then, it’s just been trying to piece things together for him so he can develop into a versatile racehorse.”

No Control’s rapid rise is evident in his odds for the Ontario Sired Series Final.

“He has the ten hole on Saturday,” Micallef said. “He’s still 6-5 morning line [favorite].”

The pacer has captured more attention every race, also becoming a favorite of a Woodbine Mohawk Park racing analyst.

“We liked him anyway, right?” Micallef said. “But the way Randy Waples talks about him… He pumped him up.”

No Control will be even more visible in the coming months at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

“I paid him into the Somebeachsomewhere and I paid him into the [North America] Cup,” Micallef said, adding that the Ontario Sires Stakes will be on No Control’s 2023 schedule as well. “I skipped the 2-year-old year, but he’s paid for the 3-year-old year… If he’s a nice OSS 3-year-old pacer, he can make money there, too.”

Coming back to the races this season, No Control disproved his name.

“I thought maybe as he got older, he might get a bit more aggressive, but when he qualified this year, I don’t know if you noticed, but the first quarter was like :31.1 and he sat in the hole, which is what I wanted,” Micallef said. “No problem driving him, no problem at all.”

Micallef is also the paddock blacksmith at Woodbine Mohawk Park. He said a shoeing change played a small but significant part in No Control’s success. 

“Last year, he had steel shoes,” he said. “When I turned him out, I put the flip-flops on him after December. I brought him back with the flip-flops on and I trained him down and I qualified him with the flip-flops on. He didn’t seem to be pacing as good. He looked like he was kind of spinning his wheels. I thought the track was quite deep, so I kind of let that one go, the qualifier.

“Then in his first start, he still wasn’t pacing quite right. He still won it. So, then I changed him back to steel last week and I could tell he was pacing better. The flip-flops can’t grab the track as well… The blacksmith part, I guess it does help, a little bit.”

No Control and Dani Hanover have rapidly become more interesting than their 2021 Harrisburg sale prices would have suggested. Micallef said he wondered about 2-year-old Beyond Control, the younger full brother to No Control.

“I was looking for him,” he said.

He learned the colt was privately purchased by Douglas Wilson of Dorchester, ON.

As for Dani Hanover, Ray Yoder of Crystal Springs Farm laughed out loud when he was reached for an interview.

“I looked her up the other day and I was like, ‘Doggone, I should have kept her!” Yoder said with a laugh.

The mare lost her 2022 foal, her fourth colt by Control The Moment.

“She had foaling complications,” Yoder said. “We got the colt out… He got an infection in a joint and we ended up having to put the colt down. I was down in the dumps about it.”

Disappointed, he sold Dani Hanover last summer, before her two sons of racing age had started winning.

“Her page was still blank, like none of them had done anything, so I actually don’t have the mare anymore,” Yoder said. “I basically just gave her to my brother-in-law. I don’t even know if she’s breeding sound or not… She is probably pulling a buggy right now.”

Yoder said he would be taking a second look at Dani Hanover’s broodmare potential, no longer a blank slate thanks to No Control and Head Honcho.

“I’m going to be on the phone here very shortly; we’re going to do some tracking down,” he said. “When I sold the mare, there was not much activity happening at all. Ain’t that the way the cookie crumbles.”

There is no certainty in harness racing, in breeding or on the track. Going into the Ontario Sired Spring Series Final, Micallef was cautiously optimistic about No Control’s chances.

“Well, we’ll see anyway,” he said. “Hopefully it keeps going. Just keep the fingers crossed.”