Johnny Bear

Johnny Bear needed six races to earn his first career win and then spent most of the next three years competing in allowance races with one graded stakes race and one claiming race among his first 31 starts. In his 32nd career start, Johnny Bear earned his first career stakes win when he won the OLG/OR Halton Stakes Presented by Tipperary Equestrian at Woodbine. He pulled off a big upset in his next race when he caught European Group 1 winner Hawkbill in the final strides to win the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes.

Johnny Bear was unplaced in his final two races of 2017.

Johnny Bear ran fifth in his first two starts as a 7-year-old in 2018 before a third-place finish in the Grade 2 Nijinsky Stakes at Woodbine, where he lost by less than a length. He followed with a close runner-up finish in the Halton Stakes at Woodbine at the 1 1/2-mile Northern Dancer distance that set him up for a repeat bid on Sept. 15. In the 2018 Northern Dancer, Johnny Bear was 16.90-1, significantly higher than the 9-1 odds at which he won the race in 2017, but he again exceeded expectations with a powerful rally to take the lead in deep stretch and then hold off runner-up Mekhtaal by a half-length.