The entries for the 89th PRINCE OF WALES STAKES, second jewel of Canada’s Triple Crown, will be drawn tomorrow at Fort Erie racetrack and there are 10 horses nominated, although not the King’s Plate winner CAITLINHERGRTNESS. The Plate-winning filly is bypassing the 1 3/16 mile Prince of Wales on the dirt with an eye to other events, but her trainer, Kevin Attard, could very well win the race with another filly, AIROSA.
Airosa, a daughter of Uncle Mo – Mrs. Hudson by Street Cry (Ire), has been bombing around the Woodbine dirt training track putting up sizzling workout times and then hiked to Fort Erie on Sept. 3 and worked fast there, too. A stakes-winning sprinting on the grass last summer as a juvenile, Airosa got very sick after two poor races to end her 2023 season. She only recently made it back to the races on July 27 for the Grade 3 Ontario Colleen and she put in a mild rally in what trainer Attard called a ‘sneaky good race’.
Since the Colleen, Airosa went out and screamed 5 furlongs on the Woodbine training track in 57 flat with maiden mate BEDARD, who is also expected to run in the Prince of Wales. On Tuesday she worked four furlongs in 47 1/5, a bullet, on the Fort Erie dirt.
Airosa is owned by X-Men Racing III and Star Ladies Racing and she was bred by Anderson Farms. Her younger half-brother, a yearling by Nyquist, recently sold at the CTHS Ontario yearling sale for $250,000.
There have been seven fillies who have won the ‘Wales’ since its inception in 1929 (the race was not run on a few occasions in its early days). One of those filly winners was QUEENSWAY, who won the 1932 edition as well as that year’s Plate and Breeders’ Stakes. The Triple Crown was not recognized at the time, but Queensway is regarded as the first Triple Crown winner.
The most recent fillies to win the Prince of Wales have been Mark Casse-trained Wonder Gadot, the Plate winner of her year, Dixie Strike, also trained by Casse, Gandria and 1990 Plate winner Dance Smartly, who went on to win the Triple Crown.
Fast workout times aside, Airosa still has to get past probable favourite MIDNIGHT MASCOT, who finished third in the Plate beaten by just 2 3/4 lengths for Manfred and Penny Conrad. Midnight Mascot, trained by Casse, may be joined by his mate ESSEX SERPENT, who set the pace in the Plate before stopping and finishing 10th.
And Kevin Attard also has a pair nominated for Al and Bill Ulwelling, who have won the Wales twice – with Hadassah and Velocitor – in the last two years. Both PIERRE (fourth in the Plate) and JOKESTAR (fifth in the Plate) worked on the dirt at Fort Erie on Tuesday, both going a modest 1:04 for 5 furlongs.
Also nominated is recent maiden winner WYOMING BILL, a son of Curling owned and bred by Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry, Stronach Stables’ VITALITY, who was sixth in the Plate, Maryland-based PASSIONED, a half-brother to Wales winner Coltimus Prime, and NO MORE OPTIONS.
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