Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Trainer John Ross ends 7-year hiatus
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer John Ross will have a starter in the $1 million Queen’s Plate for the first time since 2011 when Coronation Futurity winner Aheadbyacentury enters the starting gate for the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown on June 30 at Woodbine.
One Big Gator finished 15th for Ross in the 2011 Queen’s Plate. In all, Ross has run seven horses in the Queen’s Plate, with his best finish coming from Dance Engagement, who was fifth in 2003. Ross also played a big part in Lexie Lou’s development before selling her privately to trainer Mark Casse and owner Gary Barber prior to her 2014 Queen’s Plate victory.
Ross said he is looking forward to running Aheadbyacentury in this year’s race.
“With all due respect to Gator, this is a little more of the real deal,” he said. “I think it’s safe to say that a mile and a quarter will suit him better than a mile and an eighth.”
Ross co-owns Aheadbyacentury with Jack of Hearts Racing, a partnership that began prior to the 2015 Canadian Premier yearling sale. Ross said the partners involved with Jack of Hearts Racing left him with one mission prior to the sale.
“As simple as it is, they said, ‘John, we want you to go to the sales and pick out some stakes horses,’ ” he said. “This one kind of worked out that way.”
Ross purchased two horses out of the 2015 sale for Jack of Hearts Racing, Raglan Road, who went on to place in three stakes in her 2-year-old campaign in 2016, and Cool Catomine, last season’s Prince of Wales Stakes winner at Fort Erie.
For an encore, Ross purchased Aheadbyacentury for $67,000 for the partnership at the 2016 sale and earned another win in a prestigious Canadian stakes races when Aheadbyacentury won last season’s $225,000 Coronation Futurity Stakes.
“So far, they’re having a great time,” Ross said. “They’re just delighted to be in this race, and why wouldn’t they, when you’ve got three or four horses and you’ve got one for the Plate. They’re all excited about it. It’s nice to see that for them.”
Ross said he was always high on Aheadbyacentury, opting to start his career off in stakes company. Aheadbyacentury ran third in the Clarendon Stakes last August in his career debut and followed with a fourth-place finish in the Simcoe Stakes in his next start.
Ross also felt that Aheadbyacentury would be better going long, and the colt won his maiden in his first start around two turns against maiden special weight company last October. That start set him up nicely for the Coronation Futurity, a race he won by two lengths over Neepawa. Aheadbyacentury will be looking to become the first Coronation Futurity winner to win the Queen’s Plate since Norcliffe accomplished the feat in 1976.
“When you win the Coronation and see a horse going a mile and an eighth, you know you may have a nice product for the Queen’s Plate,” Ross said. “I know there’s some kind of stigma about a horse winning the Coronation is not going to win the Plate. We’re going to try to break that.”
Following the Coronation win, Ross sent Aheadbyacentury to Payson Park training center in Indiantown, Fla., for winter conditioning under the watchful eye of John Hennig.
Aheadbyacentury’s 3-yearold debut came in the Queenston Stakes at Woodbine on April 22, when he finished fifth behind Silent Sting. But he improved in his next start when he stretched out around two turns for the Grade 3 Marine Stakes on May 13. He finished third in that event and followed that with another third-place finish in the Plate Trial Stakes.
Aheadbyacentury raced with blinkers for his first six starts, but Ross opted to take them off for the Plate Trial. He said he will be putting the blinkers back on for the Queen’s Plate.
“It was the Plate Trial, and I tried something,” he said. “I took the blinkers off to see if he would go along and maybe help him a little bit. It really didn’t. I got the feedback from [Rafael] Hernandez. He said he’s better and he’s more focused with them. I’m not trying to flip flop, but when something works better, you go back to it.”
Aheadbyacentury put in his final work for the Queen’s Plate on Wednesday morning, covering five furlongs in 1:01.60 with jockey Luis Contreras in the irons. Contreras will have the mount for the Queen’s Plate.
“It went very nice,” Ross said. “He came back good and looking good. They got him in 1:01, and that was just what I wanted. It’s just a matter of after today, with nine days to go, keeping him safe and happy and getting him over there.”
Watch Ron Gierkink’s video update at drf.com/queens-plate