Playing the waiting game with R First Class

Tom Rankin is one of those old-fashioned people who just loves to own a good horse — the prize money is not going to change his lifestyle.

So to have what many consider to be the horse to beat in the $225,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final for three-year-old trotting colts Saturday night at Mohawk Racetrack is something that gives the St. Catharines resident great satisfaction.

However, Ben Baillargeon believes that while R First Class should have a good result in Saturday night’s start, his real future may be next year.

“This horse is getting better every start but I think next summer he could be an open class horse,” says Baillargeon who is based at Ideal Training Centre near Erin.

“It’s taken some time to get him to this stage but when he won his last start in an OSS Gold event a few weeks ago, (driver) Sylvain Filion said that he was so strong that he could have gone a couple of seconds faster. He has not been hurt and I think that will pay off next season.”

Rankin, who operates Rankin Construction, which specializes in major infrastructure projects, bred this horse himself so he never went to public auction.

“Had he sold at auction I am pretty sure that with his pedigree and looks he would have easily brought over $100,000,” says Baillargeon.

“The only quirk R First Class has is that he needs for someone to come out on the track and turn him to go behind the starting gate. He’s the same way at home as he is at the racetrack. But other than that he has always been a great horse to be around, solid on his feet and, as I said, getting better every start.”

Unraced at two, the horse will be making his 12th lifetime start. He now sits with $194,000 banked from six wins and four seconds in 11 starts.

“He was not made eligible to a lot but could have been supplemented to the Canadian Trotting Classic. Tom had the $60,000 cheque ready but after finishing second in the Simcoe, I thought it was too big a gamble,” says Baillargeon.

“So he did not get roughed up and with a bit of luck will have a good night in the Super Final. That will be it and you will not see him again until sometime in May. I have a good feeling about him.”

It’s a big night for the racing game tonight with the track ponying up $1.8 million for eight OSS Super Final events. Winning the bigger events on the big nights is a big part of owning horses.

Rankin has a great appreciation for this, having known what owning a top horse is all about. In 2001, he savoured his crowning moment as a horse owner, winning the Breeders Crown with Liberty Balance, who passed away 10 years ago.

No one is prepared to declare R First Class the equal of Liberty Balance just yet. But in 12 months that might be the very conversation.