Ellas My Love Gives Pool Play First Winner
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Photo: Michael Burns
Ellas My Love wins by 2 1/2 lengths to become his sire's first winner
Pool Play, who banked more than $1.3 million racing, had his first winner as a sire July 29, when his son Ellas My Love crushed a field of Ontario-sired 2-year-old maidens at Woodbine.
With jockey Gary Boulanger aboard for trainer William Tharrenos, the colt stalked the pace early before he took command with a wide move after a half-mile in the six-furlong maiden special weight race.
Owned by Andreas Pitsadiotis, the bay runner extended his lead by 2 1/2 lengths at the wire and stopped the clock at 1:11.40.
Ellas My Love paid $5.40, $3.40, and $2.20 across the board to his backers.
Out of the winning mare Lea's Moon, by Perigee Moon, Pitsadiotis paid $22,890 for the colt at the 2016 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (Ontario Division) Canadian-bred yearling sale.
Pool Play stood the 2017 season for $2,500 at T. C. Westmeath Stud Farm in Ontario.
A versatile racehorse, Pool Play's greatest win was at 36-1 in the 2011 Stephen Foster Handicap (G1) at Churchill Downs for trainer Mark Casse and owner William S. Farish.
A son of Silver Deputy out of Zuri Ridge (Cox's Ridge), Pool Play also took the Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap (G2) the next year, going 1 1/4 miles on the dirt. He won the Durham Cup Stakes (G3) at 1 1/8 miles on Woodbine's all-weather track and placed in the 1 1/2-mile Elkhorn Stakes (G2T) in 2011 at Keeneland.