Woodbine hosted three graded stakes races on November 8 and the 11-race card offered large fields and plenty of competitive events. The trio of stakes began with the 119th Maple Leaf Stakes (G3) at the testing distance of 1 1/4 miles. The race for fillies and mares was followed by the Grade 3 Bessarabian, which had a huge field of 14 and was won by Godolphin’s Pondering, and the Grade 3 Autumn, won by champion Dresden Row.
The Maple Leaf was a tricky race to handicap, since not many in the field appeared to be very comfortable with the 10 furlong distance. The lukewarm 3-to-1 favourite was shipper Long Ago, trained by William Morey, while Mark Casse trainees Blitz and Dancing N Dixie were both 7-to-2.
It was Blitz who sped to the early lead and Hurricane Clair was behind her, not taking kindly to rating tactics by her rider Eswan Flores. The pace was fairly quick anyway and the closers swarmed the speedsters around the last turn. The first to move was For Flying from the Graham Motion barn, and then TEC Racing’s Queen’s Command, at a whopping 26-to-1, went by that rival. It appeared that trainer Martin Drexler was going to win the Maple Leaf with Queen’s Command, but suddenly the lightly-raced four-year-old Sultana powered to the front in the final strides. Sultana was 5-to-1 and she was the 20th stakes winner for jockey Rafael Hernandez this year.
Anyone who had seen Sultana’s debut outing in May, when she rallied from last, in and out of traffic, to win a 1 1/16 mile race, knew the Always Dreaming Kentucky-bred was a good one. In fact, owner Lanni Bloodstock sold shares in the filly after her debut to Lou Donato, Theodore Manziaris and Paul Borrell.
She was coming off her second win before the Maple Leaf.
Attard, Canada’s reigning trainer of the year, had high praise for Sultana.
“Well, we were always keen on her right from the get-go, and obviously in her first race, she was pretty impressive,” said Attard. “She’s just kind of figuring it out as she goes along and improving like you would expect of a horse whose kind of having a late start to her career like she has. So, she came into this race working really well, and we were pretty high on her today.”
Bred in Kentucky by Michael J. Snyder & Always Dreaming Syndicate, the dark bay has a record of 3-1-1 from five starts. She was a $50,000 (USD) purchase at the 2023 OBS Company June Two-Year-Olds & Horses of Racing Age Sale.
Kevin Attard won three races on the 11-race card, while trainer Steven Chircop won a pair including a maiden race with his daughter’s horse Ava’s Princess.
More News
