Four days of early autumn racing at Woodbine this past week were held on sunny and warm days, illuminating the general feel around the backstretch. The passing of owner and trainer Nathan Squires last week was hard on many horsepeople and anyone who had a chance to meet the personable man.
So very fitting, almost eerily so, Squires’ own runner SOL DE VERANO overcame a near disastrous trip in the last race on Saturday and won for the first time since his debut in May 2024. It was hard to ignore that something else might have been at work with the four-year-old gelding whom Squires picked out for $12,000 at the Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale in 2023. The son of Thousand Words earned over $31,000, winning that career debut as a juvenile, but through the next 18 races, picking up a few thirds and not much else.
But on Saturday, in his second race since the blinkers were taken off, Sol de Verano and jockey Luis Reyes rallied from well off the pace, angled out sharply when almost blocked in the stretch and somehow got up to beat Devil’s Tongue, who had a long lead very late.
Well wishers from the backstretch and Woodbine staff crowded the winner’s circle. Squires owned Sol de Verano with Joe Freeman and Alberta Campos-Cota. Devon Boreland is now the listed trainer of Squires’ runners.
Incredibly, there were 29 different trainers who won races at Woodbine in the last four days, from 37 dashes.
Mark Casse won five races and Mike Wright Jr. won three.
MORE SATURDAY, SEPT. 26
Average winning Beyer Figure for the 11 races was 68 (there was not a stakes race on the card).
The Tapeta played fair with speedsters winning such as SCOTTIE’S BARN (Mr. Scotty), who had not been close in four previous maiden starts, but woke up for Bruno Schickedanz and trainer Devon Gittens in Race 1. Desean Bynoe was the winning rider.
SAHIN CIVACI, Canada’s champion rider in 2024, rode three winners from his six mounts. Civaci does not take too many mounts these days, riding mostly only for the Casse barn.
Speaking of the Casse barn, it won four races on Saturday, three with maidens. D.J. Stables’ Ontario-bred filly CHARMINGLY EVASIVE (Charlatan) won an allowance race for three-year-olds and upward by a head over another Casse runner, Happy Destination. Charmingly Evasive earned the day’s highest Beyer Speed Figure, according to Daily Racing Form, of 80.
D.J. Stables also watched a first-time starter named ODENKIRK win his debut with Rafael Hernandez riding. The $130,000 purchase, bred by Anderson Farms in Ontario, was a handy winner in 1:09.92 for six furlongs, earning a 58 Beyer. Odenkirk is a half-brother to another recent winner, Cyclone Taylor, who earned a 79 Beyer in his maiden win on Sept. 20. Both winners are from the mare Astrollinthepark by Divine Park, whose half-sister MASHALLAH is a graded stakes-winning three-year-old filly in the U.S. this year.
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From Sunday, SLOVAN became the third winner for his Ontario sire TWEET KITTEN in 2026 with a maiden-breaking rally to take the first race for $25,000 claiming. Making his third start, after two last-place finishes totaling 43 1/2 lengths, the two-year-old is owned and was bred by Tara Horse Farm, where Tweet Kitten (Kitten’s Joy) stands. Anthony Husbands was saddling his fourth winner of the meeting from just 31 starters.
Longshot VELOCITA came from last place to win a sprint race under Fraser Aebly, who skimmed the rail (it does open often) to get the grey daughter of Old Forester up for the 16-to-1 win, The filly, bred by Tim and Robin Griffiths, won earlier this year at 43-to-1. She came into the $40,000 optional claiming race on Sunday off 39 and 49 Beyer Figures.
And two-year-old SUNDAY FINERY took advantage of a route distance and just three rivals, taking a maiden allowance race by more than 13 lengths for trainer Jamie Begg. Sunday Finery, bred in Ontario by Bernard and Karen McCormack, is by Mystic Guide from Aunty Mo by Uncle Mo. The filly was traded about at auction as a $50,000 yearling purchase by Rogefield Farm and then a $60,000 October yearling purchase by Walmac Farm. Earlier this year she was bought by Begg Racing for $90,000 from the April two-year-old sale in Ocala.
Sunday Finery is owned by Walmac, Jeff and Annabel Begg, Eric Long and Bart Siegel. The filly earned a 76 Beyer for her victory.
Thursday and Friday
Horses that just won their maiden have been coming right back to win. Thursday, NILE PASSAGE has a new lease on life with two straight wins for trainer Darwin Banach and owners Rodney Carpenter and David Rowbotham. The Shaman Ghost filly had shown nothing in her races before she tried two turns on the Tapeta.
SPICY BOURBON, by Point of Entry, has won two turf races in succession with Daisuke Fukomoto riding, one by a nose, the other by a neck. She had been 11th in her first grass outing. Spicy Bourbon is owned by Joe and Tony Gattelaro.
On Friday, the trusty mare VERDEJO won again for Carlo d’Amato and trainer Mike Mattine, who re-claimed the daughter of Fed Biz for $25,000 three starts ago. Verdejo, well known for her late charge from off the pace, suddenly led from start to finish for $23,500 claiming on Friday.
And a class drop was all that the seven-year-old gelding C My Meister needed as he won for $14,000 claiming for Michael Bellissimo and Mike Wright Jr. with a devastating rally from almost last pace to win a turf event by 4 1/2 lengths with his best Beyer Figure of his career, an 82. It was the gelding’s first win in two years.
Wright Jr.’s other wins came with War Strategy and Cotton. Another one of his starters, TEC Stables‘ OFFLEE NAUGHTY, a multiple graded stakes winner, made his first start for his new barn and his first start as now an eight-year-old gelding on Sunday. The earner of over $440,000 finished sixth in a 1 1/4 mile $40,000 claiming race on grass behind another puzzling winner, Exude, who was outrun in a previous turf distance race.
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