Ocean Storm sails to win William Wellwood Memorial

Milton, ON – Hunterton Raised & Sold Ocean Storm swept down the center of the track off a covered ride and bounded to equal the stakes record with a 1:52.4 victory in the C$570,000 Grade 1 William Wellwood Memorial, for 2-year-old trotters, on Saturday night (Aug. 29) at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
With elimination winner Gio’s Hope breaking stride after the start, Honcho and Free Scottie hustled from wide draws to the fore with Detonater Hanover, the other elimination winner, easing into third through a :26.4 first quarter. Honcho planted on the point into the backstretch but soon faced pressure as Detonater Hanover tipped out and looped to the lead before a :56.2 half, at which point Top Reacher angled outside from sixth to lead the outer tier to the final turn.
Ocean Storm caught cover and followed Top Reacher’s tow through the last turn. Driver Yannick Gingras fanned off cover with Ocean Storm just after three-quarters in 1:24.4 and came bearing down on the dueling leaders in the stretch. Ocean Storm surged past his rivals in the final sixteenth and won by three-quarters of a length over Access Now, who split horses late to take second. Top Reacher grabbed third from Detonater Hanover in fourth.
“I was really impressed with him in the elimination last week,” said Gingras, who won for the fifth time in the Wellwood after first scoring in the 2010 edition and winning three straight from 2013 to 2015. “He was loaded with trot, moved from the rail to three high and in a couple of strides stormed home.
“It’s just his third lifetime start; I didn’t want to do anything too fancy with him. By the seven-eighths pole, I felt pretty confident. I was inching by them and my horse was still trotting. It definitely feels special to win for (Cameron) Capone – his brother is like a second brother to us and we go a long way.”
“He came along great, really nothing wrong with him,” trainer Cameron Capone said after the race. “We had a bit of trouble once we put the hopples on because he was racing in New York, so I just wanted to put hopples on. But once we took them off, he’s been all trot. Top of the lane, second over… we were both licking our chops, I think. It was awesome to have (Yannick) do it because I have a lot of trust in him and so do the owners, so it was great.”
Winning just the second race from three starts in his career, Ocean Storm has now earned C$302,489 for owners ADH Holdings, Paul Kautz, Jeff Gural and Jean Pierre Barjon. His 1:52.4 mile – a lifetime best – equaled the stakes record set by Alarm Detector in 2017 and matched by Ardonne in 2025.
“After start number one, we knew we had something special,” said Mike Butler of ADH Holdings. “The group came together late; we came into this horse late in the season, and it’s been nothing but pleasurable. This horse has really come along, and I don’t even think we know what this horse is capable of yet. It’s absolutely unbelievable. I knew last week we were going to win tonight, it was no question. We knew we would. Coming into it, we knew we had something special, we just didn’t know what we had. At the end of that elimination, we knew tonight was going to be our night.”
Sent off as the favorite in the betting, Ocean Storm paid $5.50 to win.
















