Atlas Ross Heads to the Super Final Still Unbeaten

Atlas Ross won the C$150,000 OSS Gold Leg 3 in 1:51.2 on Aug. 16 at Woodbine Mohawk Park. The even-money favourite sat fourth, then exploded up the rail to stay unbeaten.

He has since made it three Gold wins and a 5-for-5 record, with the C$300,000 Super Final set for Oct. 10.

Atlas Ross Shot Through on the Rail

Gregg McNair trains the Big Jim colt. His son Doug McNair drove from the rail in a field of nine, settling fourth while Kerplunk and Tyler Borth showed the way to a:27.3 quarter. Yes I Am Hanover and Bob McClure crossed over to the lead, then McNair moved with Atlas Ross, poked to the front, and gave the lead back to second choice Gogo Gadget and Jonathan Drury.

Gogo Gadget had them at the:55.4 half and still led at the 1:23.4 three-quarters, with Big D Energy and Mark MacDonald pressing. McNair aimed Atlas Ross up the pylons. Once the hole opened past Gogo Gadget and Big D Energy, the colt pulled away by 1 3/4 lengths over a late-running Yes I Am Hanover. Big D Energy held third. Gogo Gadget faded to fourth and Kerplunk was fifth.

The Mohawk chart stopped him in 1:51.2, last quarter:27.2, on a fast track at 23 C. He paid C$4.10 as the 1.05 favourite. Ontario Sires Stakes posted the career-best 1:51.2 Gold score as his second straight Gold and his third OSS win, after a Grassroots score on July 5.

I wasn’t sure what was pacing on the inside, but once he shot through, he kind of exploded. He’s a really fast colt.

Doug McNair, driver, to Woodbine broadcaster John Rallis

McNair added that the colt is “just sweetheart,” and that he wants to do it from either way. “He loves being on the helmet, or he goes on the front. He’s a really classy horse.”

The C$25,000 Colt From Wingham

James and Elizabeth Ross of Wingham, Ontario, signed for the C$25,000 London Classic yearling buy in 2025. Ashley and Dean Wilson of Kerwood, Ontario, bred the bay son of Big Jim and the Artsplace mare Kisskissbangbang. The London Classic that year moved 289 yearlings for C$8,858,000, an average of C$30,650.52, with pacing colts averaging C$34,791.67. Atlas Ross sold under that colt average.

He broke his maiden at Kawartha Downs, then took a C$30,000 Grassroots split at Mohawk on July 5 in 1:52.4. On July 19 he won a C$100,000 Gold Leg 2 division in 1:51.3, racing fourth to the three-quarters and digging in late by a head over Totally Tyler. The Aug. 16 Gold left him with C$142,550 from four wins. The Sept. 5 Gold lifted that bankroll to C$192,550, more than seven times the yearling price.

THE COLT ON THE CARD

• Record: Five starts, five wins, three of them OSS Gold legs.
• Speed badge: 1:51.2, set in the Aug. 16 Gold at Mohawk.
• The buy: C$25,000 at the 2025 London Classic Yearling Sale.
• The barn: Trainer Gregg McNair, driver Doug McNair, owners James and Elizabeth Ross.

Gregg McNair has been the Johnston Cup leading trainer in the Ontario Sires Stakes in 2025 and 2024. Doug McNair, who won the Lampman Cup as the program’s leading driver in 2024, passed C$100 million in career driving earnings on Sept. 6 at Mohawk, the night after he kept Atlas Ross unbeaten.

How Gogo Gadget Lost the Division

Gogo Gadget looked like the other half of a two-colt series. He won a Leg 1 Gold division on July 3 and a Leg 2 division on July 19, then went off as the 2.10 second choice on Aug. 16. He made the front past the quarter, carried them to the three-quarters, and came up empty in fourth. On Sept. 5 he drew the other Leg 4 split and finished last of six in 1:52.1.

Yes I Am Hanover, also trained by Gregg McNair for Bradley J. Grant of Milton, Ontario, has become the one who chases Atlas Ross home. The Bulldog Hanover colt was second on Aug. 16 at 26-1 and second again on Sept. 5 at 20-1. Big D Energy, the Control The Moment gelding, was third on Aug. 16 and fourth on Sept. 5 after an early break.

GOLD RESULTS, MAIN COLTS

The early-speed colt that won the first two Gold nights has not kept up once the miles tightened. Atlas Ross has now beaten that style from a rail pocket and from the front.

Team McNair Took Both Splits on Sept. 5

Gold Leg 4 split into two C$100,000 divisions on the Canadian Pacing Derby undercard. Doug McNair won both of them. In the first split, 14-1 TH Theo, a Cattlewash colt Gregg McNair also trains, ground out of the pocket to beat 4-5 favourite D A Alljokesaside by a half-length in a career-best 1:50.4. TH Theo paid C$30. Frank D. Brundle, Mac Nichol, and Jeffrey Skinner paid C$150,000 for that colt at Harrisburg. Doug told John Rallis he thought TH Theo was one of the top two in the barn coming into the year.

Atlas Ross drew the second split as the 2-5 choice in a field of six and was undefeated through five career starts after it. Cattletracks led them to a:27 quarter. McNair had Atlas Ross on top before the half, then rolled:56 and 1:25 and finished in 1:51.3, last quarter:26.3, 1 1/2 lengths in front of Yes I Am Hanover. Cattletracks held third. Atlas Ross paid C$2.80.

Ontario Sires Stakes posted the result the same night.

Team McNair (@Dmcnair12) won both Gold divisions for 2-year-old pacing colts tonight at @WoodbineSB with TH Theo and Atlas Ross https://t.co/Xl4iXje4An#betontario@woodbinephotos images pic.twitter.com/OkAao2c6Cj

— Ontario Sires Stakes (@ONTSSNews) September 6, 2026

THE SEPT. 5 GOLD SPLITS

• First division: TH Theo in 1:50.4 at 14-1, first Gold win, C$30 mutuel.
• Second division: Atlas Ross in 1:51.3 at 2-5, third Gold win, C$2.80 mutuel.
• Barn score: Gregg McNair trained both winners, Doug McNair drove both.

A 14-1 barnmate winning the other split is the detail the rest of the division has to live with. The McNairs did not just keep the favourite unbeaten. They took the whole Gold night.

Big Jim Still Throws Fast Freshmen

Atlas Ross is not a fashionable sire-line flier. Big Jim, a Western Ideal horse out of Bold Pink, was foaled on March 30, 2008, and went 10-3-4 with earnings of C$1,544,580. Phil Hudon drove all 10 of those wins, including a Breeders Crown-winning two-year-old season that made Big Jim Dan Patch and O’Brien two-year-old pacing colt of the year in 2010. Hudon called him brilliant, powerful, and athletic, and likened the two-year-old to Bo Jackson: overpowering, and willing.

He stands at Seelster Farms in Lucan, Ontario, for a C$5,500 fee. That is modest money next to the stallions that topped North American two-year-old pacing earnings in 2026. The Ross family bought the result of that fee for C$25,000 and now have a Gold series colt who has won from the helmet and from the front.

Chantilly, another Big Jim, already showed what that two-year-old speed can become in this program. Atlas Ross is the cheap end of the same idea: a precocious Mohawk colt, still learning, already beating the ones who were supposed to take him off the gate.

The Super Final on Oct. 10 Runs Through Him

The 2026 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold series still has five Gold legs and a Super Final in each division. Two-year-old pacing colts have Leg 5 on Oct. 3 at Woodbine Mohawk Park, then the Super Final on Oct. 10. This year the eight Super Finals, worth C$2.4 million, share one Saturday night instead of two. Each Super Final is C$300,000, with no starting fee. A Gold win is worth 50 series points. The top 10 point earners who enter draw in, and a horse needs at least one Gold start to be eligible.

Atlas Ross has 150 points from three Gold wins and has not finished behind anyone. He skipped Leg 1 and still has a Gold date on Oct. 3 to stack another 50 if he wins it. Gogo Gadget has two Gold wins and two poor finishes. TH Benedict won Leg 1 and has been chasing since. TH Theo just crashed the list at 14-1.

WHAT STILL SITS ON THE CALENDAR

• Oct. 3: Gold Leg 5 for two-year-old pacing colts at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
• Oct. 10: C$300,000 Super Final, 10 starters, one night with the other seven championships.
• The points: 50 for a Gold win, top 10 in, one Gold start required.

Cattletracks, third to Atlas Ross on Sept. 5, paced 1:50.1 at Mohawk on Sept. 12, the fastest two-year-old colt mile over a track larger than five-eighths in Canada this year. That clocking is faster than Atlas Ross’s 1:51.2 badge, and it came in a different spot on the card. It is the one clean speed warning in a division the unbeaten colt has otherwise controlled.

What Leg 5 on Oct. 3 Still Decides

A Super Final favourite can still get a hard post, a first-over trip, or a night when a 14-1 barnmate is not the only one who improves. Leg 5 is the last chance for Gogo Gadget to show the early speed still matters, for Cattletracks to bring that 1:50.1 into Gold company, and for Yes I Am Hanover to finish in front of his stablemate. It is also the last easy 50-point night for Atlas Ross before the championship.

He has already done the things Super Finals ask of a two-year-old. He sat a rail trip and came through. He took back, then retook. He left and carried a half in:56. McNair can put him anywhere on Oct. 10. The rest of the freshman colts have to take the race from him.

The Ross family paid C$25,000 for that option. On Oct. 10 at Mohawk, it comes due at C$300,000.