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![\"Jason](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3572821_web1_Groom-Kenroy-Cuba-Rowe-and-jockey-Antonio-Whitehall-with-Mechanic-Susie-after-their-win.jpeg\")
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Jason Halstead \/ Assiniboia Photo<\/p>\n
Groom Kenroy \u201cCuba\u201d Rowe and jockey Antonio Whitehall with Mechanic Susie after their win in the Distaff Stakes.<\/p>\n
Last year, the five-year-old Manitoba-bred mare by Nonios out of Quantum Mechanics by Einstein won six races in a row, including the Distaff, on her way to being named champion older mare. Ahe looks like she\u2019s going to do similar this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s just a nice horse,\u201d said Dickey about his stable star. \u201cShe makes like $10,000 a start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Purchased by her owners for $1,000 at the 2021 Manitoba CTHS Yearling Sale, Mechanic Susie has now earned US$153,390 from a record of 11-3-5 in 22 starts, and she\u2019s regained her fine form again for Dickey.<\/p>\n
Susie gave three-time leading ASD rider Antonio Whitehall his first of two stakes victories on the week, moving him into a tie at the top of the standings with Damario Bynoe.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s all heart,\u201d said Whitehall. \u201cShe\u2019s very special. She\u2019s kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime type of horse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitehall also won the $40,000 J.W. Sifton Stakes on Tuesday, but with a totally different style of ride. Instead of coming from just off the pace as he did with Mechanic Susie, <\/p>\n
Whitehall put Betterlucknexttime on the lead in the 1 1\/8-mile race and set what might have been the slowest pace of the year, catching all the other riders napping. <\/p>\n
The race was basically over after a quarter mile in 26.64 seconds and a crawling half mile in 51.77.<\/p>\n
When trainer Mike Nault was asked what he was thinking after watching his horse set such a slow pace, he said, \u201cMerry Christmas.\u201d <\/p>\n
He knew the race was over after a half mile, as did every other handicapper.<\/p>\n
Betterlucknexttime gives his best every time, and he doesn\u2019t need the lead to win, so the Sifton was a free gift for his trainer, jockey, owners and groom Brittany Bergen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would have been in the top three regardless,\u201d said Nault.<\/p>\n
Unlike Mechanic Susie, Betterlucknexttime was not a bargain purchase in the local yearling sale, depending on how you look at it. <\/p>\n
The Manitoba-bred three-year-old gelding by Nonios out of Nickel Candy by Silver Deputy was purchased for $25,000 in the 2023 sale, and has now earned US$91,129 from a record of 6-2-1 in 12 starts for owners A2 Thoroughbreds and True North Thoroughbreds.<\/p>\n
The Sifton was the third stakes win for Betterlucknexttime, who won the Buffalo Stakes last year and the Frank Arnason Memorial Sire Stakes earlier this year. <\/p>\n
It was the second stakes winner of the week for sire Nonios, who also sired Mechanic Susie.<\/p>\n