Majestic Son 3 weeks away

Trainer Mark Steacy has told harnessracing.com that 2006 Canadian Horse of the Year Majestic Son is about three weeks away from qualifying after recently training the 4-year-old son of Angus Hall in 1:58 at Hippodrome de Montreal.

A 14-time winner with $1.2 million in earnings last year, Majestic Son’s triumphs included a season-ending Breeders Crown, the Goodtimes and the Canadian Trotting Classic, the latter of which he set his career mark of 1:52.2. Overall, Majestic Son has a career slate of 32-19-4-3 and earnings of $1,651,765.

“He’s probably two to three weeks from qualifying,” said Steacy. “He trained at Montreal in 1:58 and he is looking good. He’s pretty powerful. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”

It was at first believed Majestic Son would be retired to stand stud this year, but the ownership group of the Majestic Son Stable decided to bring their charge back to the races as a 4 year old.

“I am kind of keen on seeing him get charged up and going again,” said Steacy. “But I’m leery because of the fact that the competition looks like it’s going to be very strong.”

“Like Mark, we have reservations with 4 year olds going against the tigers, but he’s a nice horse,” added co-owner R. Peter Heffering. “I said to Mark, ‘You don’t have to race his guts out as a 4 year old, just think about next year as a 5 year old. Let him mature and race him and see how he does. He doesn’t need to go to every dogfight this year as a 4 year old.’”

As for the decision to bring back Majestic Son, Heffering added, “If I had owned him outright 100 percent, I probably would have been standing him, but I’m in the stud business also (Tara Hills Stud). But the other owners like racing, and it’s not bad for the industry if he races and does reasonably well. Especially if he comes back next year and is a horse that is good enough for the Elitlopp or something. But time will tell.”

As for Majestic Son’s 2007 schedule, Steacy said, “The Titan Cup (June 22 at the Meadowlands) was on the list but it’s not looking good as we got a little behind. The Frank Ryan (elims July 22 at Rideau Carleton) is right down the road here in Ottawa so he’ll be there, and I may start him in the new race (William J. Sullivan elims July 12) at Monticello. We have to do something good to get invited to the Nat Ray (Aug. 4 at the Meadowlands). And we’ll take him to Lexington later (for the Allerage Series).”

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