Bruce Richardson’s Ontario Sired Spring Series champ Like Chaos is moving forward.

by Melissa Keith

On April 22, a very good 3-year-old trotter captured the $45,500 Ontario Sired Spring Series final over a “good” racing surface at Woodbine Mohawk Park (WMP). Like Chaos (Lookslikeachpndale—Misty Breeze) won the preliminary leg by four open lengths on April 7, with co-owner/trainer Bruce Richardson in the sulky. The 1:58 victory came five days after a gate-to-wire romp at Flamboro Downs, when the gelding was a widening 10 ½ lengths ahead of next-best Creed Hanover at the finish in the 2:00 mile. It was Canada’s co-fastest mile by a 3-year-old male trotter on a half-mile track this year.

As of May 5, Like Chaos (3, 1:57.2s; $44,468) had not resurfaced after his lifetime-best victory. Richardson, reached at his home in Fergus, ON, said that the black licorice-loving gelding was just taking a short but well-earned vacation. The trotter, bred by Larry R. Miller of Sugarcreek, OH, had already won back his price as a yearling and then some.

“I bought [Like Chaos] out of Harrisburg. I saw that he was a Lookslikeachpndale. I bred my mare to Lookslikeachpndale, so I just wanted to take a look at him. They were having trouble getting a bid on him, so I bought him,” Richardson said with a laugh. “He had OCD chips taken out of his hocks or something. I think his hocks were still swollen a little bit, because people stayed away from him because of that.” Richardson’s $9,000 bargain yearling is co-owned with his friend Joseph Coffey of Orangeville, ON.

The gelding’s improvement at age 3 comes after an abbreviated 2-year-old season in which he went winless.

“[Like Chaos] always trained down good, but then, as a 2-year-old, he got a little bit sick, and I think I raced him one start at Mohawk when he was not quite ready yet,” Richardson said. “That kind of set him back a little bit. So, once I turned him out and brought him back this year, he made a break on me in one of his first starts this year. Since then, he’s kind of come right around.”

As Like Chaos learned his job, he made Richardson’s easier.

“He was really green as a 2-year-old,” he said. “He’d go a quarter and then he’d let up on you. He’d just fold right up on you. He didn’t know enough to carry the speed for the whole mile, but now he’s starting to get it figured out. He’s figured out what he’s supposed to do, I guess.”

The Ontario Sired Series at WMP was a perfect fit for the improving sophomore.

“The reason I put him in the series was because he’d race against all Ontario-sired horses,” Richardson said. “We just put him in there to get some starts into him. He’s come right around.”

Trevor Henry took the lines in Like Chaos’ last two starts in Campbellville.

“I usually drive my own at Mohawk, but I was going to Florida for an old-timers’ hockey tournament,” Richardson said. “That’s why I put Trevor down, because I wasn’t going to be around. The first time Trevor drove him [April 14, in the second leg of the series], they went in 1:55. He trotted in 1:55.4 and came home a nice quarter in :27.2. In the final he just got a perfect trip: He followed Jody [Jamieson, driving 1-2 favorite Devils Arch] second over and when he moved, [Like Chaos] went right on by him.”

As for where the WMP Ontario Sired Spring Series champ might show up next, Richardson said there are plans for him to compete at The Raceway at Western Fair.

“I gave him a week after that [Ontario Sired] series, because he’d gone five weeks in a row,” he said. “Now he’s got a series coming up in London, the City of London Series. It’s for non-winners of $10,000 as of Feb. 1. He hadn’t gotten rolling yet, so he still fits that class. I think it will be two or three easy starts for him before the [Ontario] Sires Stakes gets fired up. I’ll probably drive him in London.”

Like Chaos is ultimately being pointed toward the Ontario Sires Stakes and isn’t eligible to Grand Circuit events at Mohawk.

“That’s our game plan,” Richardson said. “He’s not paid up into any of that. We’ll probably start in the Grassroots; see how he turns out there first.”

Richardson said he usually drives his own stock at Mohawk because one of biggest differences between that and driving at Flamboro and Western Fair comes down to purses.

“You just go for that much more money, so it’s nicer when you get a check,” he said.

He’s a believer in stallion Lookslikeachpndale and not just because of Like Chaos’ recent success.

“I have a 2-year-old trotting filly [No One] out of a nice mare I have called Stormont Kate [4, 1:53.3s; $270,547],” said Richardson, who also owns the yearling full brother, named Somebody.

Richardson’s experience has helped offset the inexperience of Like Chaos at just the right time for the 2023 stakes season.

“I started driving in 1990. I’ve been cleaning out stalls since public school, I know that,” he said with a laugh, adding that he likes what he currently sees in Like Chaos.

“He’s pretty honest right now,” he said. “He hasn’t been making breaks. He just wants to go forward, I guess.”