Interpol arrives at Sunday’s $1-million Pattison Canadian International from a pair of striking upset scores, engineered by pilot Emma-Jayne Wilson, taking the Grade 2 Sky Classic at odds of 21-1 and the Grade 1 Northern Dancer at a more respectable 10-1.
Trained by Sid Attard for JMJ Racing Stables LLC., the four-year-old English Channel bay will once again be a longshot in Sunday’s 1 1/2-mile test, but the veteran conditioner believes the colt can hold his own.
“He’s really coming around and has been training well,” said Attard. “He loves the distance. He just goes out there and enjoys himself and he does it so easy.”
Unraced as a juvenile, Interpol took a while to come good. Initially trained by Graham Motion, he started his career on the turf at Gulfstream Park but really didn’t excel until arriving at Woodbine in June of 2014 when fourth in a 1 1/16-mile maiden allowance over the E.P. Taylor Turf Course. The leggy fellow subsequently finished second, this time under Attard’s tutelage on July 26, in a good second-place run going 1 1/16-miles that encouraged Attard to send the colt long in the $500,000 Breeders’ Stakes.
Sent to post at odds of 18-1 in the 1 1/2-mile Breeders’, the upset-minded Interpol chased Ami’s Holiday all the way to the wire missing by three-quarters of a length. He would graduate next time out, on September 20, in a 12-furlong maiden allowance to complete his sophomore campaign.
Interpol has raised his game to another level as a four-year-old winning four of six starts including his season debut going a mile on the Gulfstream Park turf in March.
“He was off six months from his maiden win and came right back to win and that showed me this horse was going to be okay,” said Attard.
Jesse Campbell guided Interpol through a trio of turf starts in the spring at Woodbine, including a win in a 1 1/8-mile optional claimer, but the journeyman rider injured his knee in a gate incident on the Friday before the Sky Classic Stakes when dismounted from Trini Lime.
“Jesse got hurt and Emma picked up the mount and, well, you can’t take a winning jockey off a horse,” said Attard. “Emma rides him so well and they get along well. The International is going to be a much tougher race, but he deserves a shot.”
In the 1 1/4-mile Sky Classic, Interpol stalked from third position and spied an opening three-wide late in the turn to engage Are You Kidding Me as Golden Sabre struggled to find racing room in third. Interpol, with a powerful stretch drive, took command late in the lane and dug in to hold off the surging Golden Sabre by a neck.
Last time out, in the 1 1/2-mile Northern Dancer, Interpol stalked surprising pacesetter Danish Dynaformer before seizing command as the field turned for home. Habibi, the only mare in the field, closed stoutly late but Interpol hung tough to take the race by a half-length in 2:33.56 over a yielding E.P. Taylor Turf Course.
Interpol will mark the first starter in the International for Attard, who was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2013. It’s a race that Attard would dearly love to win.
“It would be something special,” said Attard. “I was here in ’73 for Secretariat. Oh boy, I would not have missed it. It was absolutely packed here and he ran beautifully.”
UP WITH THE BIRDS FLIES BACK TO CANADA FOR PCI
Sam-Son Farm’s homebred Up With the Birds, Canada’s Horse of the Year in 2013, will make his first Canadian appearance this year when contesting Sunday’s Grade 1 $1 million Pattison Canadian International.
The Ontario-bred five-year-old son of Stormy Atlantic-Song of the Lark, who is the field’s leading money winner with over $1.5 million, has been conditioned in 2015 by Graham Motion in the United States, the only horse he has for Sam-Son.
“The reason he came to me was that the owners were interested in campaigning him in North America,” explained Motion, who, amongst other highlights, won the Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup several years ago with Animal Kingdom.
While winless in four starts this year, Up With the Birds, the possible race favourite, has been knocking heads with some of the best, including two Breeders’ Cup Turf-bound runners in The Pizza Man and Big Blue Kitten, when fourth to that pair in the Grade 1 Arlington Million on August 15.
“I’ve been very happy with him,” said Motion. “He’s doing well. I think there’s a good chance he is (better, going longer). We tried him shorter the last time (a fourth-place finish in the mile and one-eighth Commonwealth Cup at Laurel on September 19). I wanted to get him perhaps in a more conservative race at a shorter distance. But he didn’t seem to handle it as well. I thought his Arlington Million going a mile and a quarter was a very good race. I think it was a very good effort that day.
“He’s actually a very straight-forward, kind horse to be around. He’s not an overly impressive work horse, which Malcolm (Pierce, who handles the Sam-Son string at Woodbine) had told me. I haven’t had any surprises with him,” continued Motion, who plans to be at Woodbine on Sunday.
Motion will also saddle Eastern Belle, a half-sister to Golden Horn, the multiple Group 1 winner, including the recent Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, in the turf Grade 1, mile and one-quarter $500,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes, part of the Pattison undercard.
Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez will climb aboard the Sam-Son silk-bearer for the first time on Sunday, seeking his first win in the mile and one-half turf classic, while Sam-Son is a two-time race winner, with Sky Classic in 1991 and Chief Bearhart in 1997.
From 2012-2014, when based at Woodbine, Up With the Birds was conditioned by Malcolm Pierce, who saw his charge just miss to Midnight Aria in the 2013 Queen’s Plate, but rebound to win the Breeders’ Stakes and Grade 1 Jamaica at Belmont Park as a three-year-old en route to Sovereign Awards as Canada’s top three-year-old male and Horse of the Year. He last ran at Woodbine on July 19, 2014, winning the Grade 2 Nijinsky Stakes, to remain unbeaten in two tries over the E.P. Taylor Turf Course.
PATTISON CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL ON TSN
In addition to the mile and one-half Pattison, one of Canada’s richest thoroughbred races (the other $1 million races are the Queen’s Plate and Ricoh Woodbine Mile), two other turf stakes will be showcased on the day – the Grade 1, $500,000 E.P. Taylor, at one mile and one-quarter for fillies and mares and the Grade 2, $300,000 Nearctic at six furlongs.
The Pattison Canadian International will be broadcast live on TSN5 from 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. ET. Masai Ujiri, President and General Manager of the Toronto Raptors, will be the guest drawmaster for the post-position draw slated for Thursday, October 15 at Woodbine.
EARLY LOOK AT THE PATTISON CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL (13)
Horse / Trainer / Owner
BUTTON DOWN (GB) / Josie Carroll / Greenwood Lodge Farm Inc.
CANNOCK CHASE / Sir Michael Stoute / Rabbah Bloodstock
DA BIG HOSS / Michael Maker / Skychai Racing
DANISH DYNAFORMER / Roger Attfield / Charles Fipke
HABIBI (NZ) / Mark Frostad / Augustin Stable
INTERPOL / Sid Attard / JMJ Racing Stables LLC
KAIGUN / Mark Casse / Quintessential Racing Florida, Horse n’ Around & G. Barber
POWER PED / Neil Drysdale / Stepaside Farms Inc.
REPORTING STAR / Pat Parente / Copper Water Thoroughbred Company
SECOND STEP (IRE) / Luca Cumani / Merry Fox Stud Limited
SHEIKHZAYEDROAD (GB) / David Simcock / Rabbah Bloodstock
TRIPLE THREAT (FR) / Bill Mott / Team Valor International and Gary Barber
UP WITH THE BIRDS / Graham Motion / Sam-Son Farm
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