OK FANTASTIC makes the news

Hometown Colts Look For Gold Luck
Oct 3
Georgian Downs will showcase Ontario’s finest freshman pacers on Saturday night and the connections of two local entries are hoping their horses can finally show off their full skill set over the Innisfil oval. The two-year-old pacing colts will lead things off in races two and five, and owner Marv Chantler is looking for an improved effort from OK Fantastic in the second $40,000 Gold Elimination. In the September Gold Series at Mohawk Racetrack, OK Fantastic finished fifth in his elimination and sixth in the final. The September outing was only the gelding’s second at the provincial stakes level. After a third in the elimination and second in the final of the season opener at Mohawk Racetrack, the Mach Three son was felled by a virus that knocked him out of action for a month and is still having an impact on his training and racing routine. “I’ve been racing horses for 45 years and he was the fastest two-year-old I’ve ever owned,” says Chantler. “We just have not been able to get him back to where he was in July. “He’s a very fast colt, but the sickness totally derailed him.”In his first three lifetime starts OK Fantastic delivered one second and two thirds, but in the four starts since he fell ill, the youngster’s best effort was a second in a Sept. 14 overnight event at Mohawk Racetrack.Paul MacDonell will steer the winner of $47,400 from post five in Saturday’s fifth race, and Chantler is hoping the pair can earn a spot in next weekend’s $130,000 Gold Final.“We’re hoping for better things to come, either Saturday at Georgian, or the next Saturday, or in the Super Final,” says the Loretto resident, whose Mardon Stables shares ownership of OK Fantastic with Carlo Rovella of Toronto. “He has a lot of ability. He has that speed built in; we’ve just got to get it out of him again.”Alliston resident Bruce MacDonald trains OK Fantastic, who was an $85,000 purchase out of the 2011 Forest City Yearling Sale. Among the five colts that OK Fantastic faces in Saturday’s elimination are former Gold Final champions Tarpon Hanover and Mach Pride, who will start from posts two and three respectively