Will Canada’s Horse of the Year take on the boys in the Pepsi North America Cup?

by Melissa Keith

Chantilly, Canada’s 2024 Somebeachsomewhere O’Brien Horse of the Year, has been a big story in Ontario in the leadup to the Pepsi North America Cup.

After back-to-back qualifying wins at Woodbine Mohawk Park, the latest by a widening seven lengths on May 2, the daughter of Big Jim—Shiraz Seelster won her sophomore pari-mutuel debut on May 17 in the Standardbred Breeders Of Ontario (SBOA) 3-year-old filly pace final at Mohawk.

Last night (May 24), Chantilly set a lifetime best 1:49.4 mile in the lone $140,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series division for 3-year-old pacing fillies at the same track to remain undefeated through all 11 career starts.

The filly is owned by her breeder, Millar Farms of Stouffville, ON, trained by Nick Gallucci, and driven by James MacDonald, all 2024 O’Brien Award winners.

Speaking before her OSS start, Gallucci, the 2024 O’Brien Trainer of the Year, said that he had hoped for another week of preparation before the filly’s 2025 debut.

“I was going to qualify her a third time before she raced,” Gallucci said. “She had a little bit of mucus, so I’m hoping for better in the next couple weeks.”

Gallucci said the filly “wasn’t really in tip-top Chantilly form” on May 17, but added that he’s “taking everything one step at a time” with the returning star. That includes plans about aiming for the Pepsi North America Cup or Fan Hanover next month.

“Yeah, we can’t really rule anything out at this point,” Gallucci said. “We can’t make that call until we see how she races on the weekend.”

He added that George Millar will make the ultimate decision. Chantilly is eligible to both stakes, with the final sustaining fees paid by the May 15 deadline.

The question of participation in the 2025 Pepsi North America Cup has drawn attention to Chantilly ever since the notion was first mentioned by Millar last year. No filly has ever been nominated to the race, which annually attracts top 3-year-old male pacers to Mohawk. In an interview at the 2024 O’Brien Awards, Millar said that he had nominated Chantilly to both the $1 million North America Cup and its companion stake for 3-year-old distaff pacers, the Fan Hanover. Ironically, the filly stake’s namesake famously beat colts in the 1981 Little Brown Jug. Jug heats had previously been won by His Lady (1946), Phantom Lady (1954), and Dotties Pick (1955), but no other filly has ever won the final.

In 1982, Fan Hanover would also become the lone mare to capture the Mohawk Gold Cup.

Other major races associated with Ontario Jockey Club (now Woodbine Entertainment) tracks have had occasional female pacing participants.

Miss Vera Bars won the sixth edition of the Canadian Pacing Derby, for 3-year-olds and up, in 1941 and finished third the following year. The race was contested at Fountain Park Racetrack in New Hamburg, ON in its first years, later relocating to Greenwood, Woodbine, and finally Mohawk, where it has been based since 2005. Canada’s 3-Year-Old Pacer of the Year in 1965, filly Woodlawn Drummond, finished third in the 1966 Canadian Pacing Derby.

The concept of a top pacing filly taking on Grand Circuit colts and geldings remains an oddity. A filly, Iosola’s Worthy, won the second edition of the Hambletonian back in 1927; there have been 14 since then, four of them after the introduction of the Hambletonian Oaks in 1971. On the pacing side, however, there has been recent reticence to even try a 3-year-old filly against males, although some have fared well in the past: Countess Adios captured the first two legs of the 1960 Pacing Triple Crown, winning the Cane Pace and Messenger Stake. She was ineligible to the Little Brown Jug.

Miss Easy, Drop The Ball, and Pure Country all faced top males at age 3.

Miss Easy won the 1991 Meadowlands Pace consolation over Cambest, despite breaking early in her elimination and missing the final.

Drop The Ball went first-over to challenge leader Westwardho Hanover in a 2011 Meadowlands Pace elimination, breaking late in the mile and finishing last. The Ross Croghan trainee led to the top of the stretch in the Meadowlands Pace consolation, jumping it off late once again, a problem which also plagued her when taking on fillies in her subsequent start.

After winning the 2016 Fan Hanover Stake at Mohawk, Pure Country was competitive against males in the Cane Pace at The Meadowlands and Carl Milstein Memorial at Northfield Park. The Jimmy Takter trainee overcame post 11 to finish fourth to Control The Moment in the Cane, and closed for place behind Betting Line in the Milstein.

None of them attempted the North America Cup, a race established in 1984 at Greenwood Raceway. But examine the North America Cup’s background, and fillies did take part in its precursor, the Queen City Pace, which began in 1964.

The inaugural Queen City Pace went for a purse of $9,750, at a mile-and-one-sixteenth distance, on Aug. 24, 1964. Three fillies raced in the event, which was won by eventual 1964 Canadian Horse of the Year Timely Knight and trainer/driver Roger White. Highland Girl (p, 4, 2:03.4f; $44,790) was best among the fillies, finishing third behind Eagle Armbro, Canada’s top 2-year-old pacer of 1963.

Owned, trained, and driven by Hugh McLean of Port Elgin, ON, Highland Girl was a daughter of Highland Express—Willmots Girl. Before venturing to Greenwood, she captured the $1,200 top class at The Raceway at Western Fair in London, ON, on Aug. 3, 1964. McLean and his brother Ray were inducted to the track’s Wall of Fame in 1989.

Late in the season, The St. Catharines Standard newspaper noted that Highland Girl would be taking on males in the inaugural $3,930 Valedictory Series Pace at Garden City Park, in St. Catherines, ON: “The lone filly in the Valedictory is Highland Girl. This lass has been impressive all season racing with the colts and free for all talent. Owner Hugh McLean of Port Elgin will guide his ace side-wheeler when starter Ernie Brown gives the word.”

Eagle Armbro won the five-horse race at a distance of one-and-five-sixteenth miles. It later moved to Mohawk, at a mile distance.

On Dec. 26, 1964, Highland Girl and McLean finished second to 6-year-old Rendezvous Boy in the $1,530 Western Fair invitational, defeating four other top-class London pacers in her final 3-year-old start.

The Fan Hanover Stake was introduced at Greenwood on July 1,1983, and now provides an attractive $425,000 purse for 3-year-old filly pacers at Mohawk. Fan Hanover herself became the first 3-year-old filly pacer to be voted USHWA Dan Patch Horse of the Year, back in 1981.

In the four decades since, Test Of Faith (2021), Rainbow Blue (2004), and Bunny Lake (2001) have been named Dan Patch Horse of the Year, all without having faced colts and geldings at age 3. Canada’s 2023 O’Brien Somebeachsomewhere Horse of the Year Sylvia Hanover never raced the boys either, suggesting that the abundance of Grand Circuit filly races today is successfully convincing the connections of top distaff pacing talents from testing them in the so-called “glamour division” of harness racing.

“Everybody kind of wants to pick your brain about it,” said Gallucci, remarking on the prospect of Chantilly in the North America Cup eliminations slated for Saturday (June 7) at Mohawk. “It would be huge for the sport, but it’s also really early in the year to ask her to do something like that.”

He said the Ontario Sires Stakes and James M. Lynch Memorial at Pocono were on Chantilly’s schedule this season, with the 2025 Breeders Crown at Mohawk a main goal, because “there’s a lot [of top fillies] she didn’t even get to race last year.”

Chantilly began racing with Lasix on Sept. 14.

“She did show some EIPH [exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage] last year, and I made the decision to put her on Lasix,” Gallucci said. “She’s benefited internally and physically.”

The trainer said he was surprised to learn that there were fillies in the Queen City Pace, remarking that it was likely due to smaller numbers of competitive young horses in those years.

“Did they even separate boys and girls back then?” he said with a laugh.

He summed up the feelings of Team Chantilly as her sophomore season gets rolling: “I think even to have a horse that’s in contention for the North America Cup would be a dream.”

Millar’s sense of sportsmanship cannot be underestimated, nor can Chantilly. Whichever road she takes on Saturday (June 14) at Mohawk, the Canadian champion will continue to fascinate fans and bettors across North America.