John J. McCormack and Canadian trainer Roger Attfield will be bringing a nice one to Woodbine this summer in ELIZABETH WAY (Ire).
McCormack, whose brother Bernard runs Cara Bloodstock with wife Karen, celebrated a big win by his newly-purchased Frankel filly on Saturday at Gulfstream when the big gal won the Grade 3 The Very One Stakes. It was a front-running score for the chestnut who had just won her maiden at Gulfstream in her first start for Attfield and first race in North America.
This is a big step up for the 4-year-old who was 0-for-5 overseas and then sold by breeder Godolphin in November 2019 at the Goffs Breeding sale in Ireland.
As hip no. 926, Elizabeth Way, a daughter of Maids Causeway, who won the Group 1 Coronation stakes, was bought by McCormack for $64,000 (US).
Quite a purchase.
With Lasix added and in the hands of one of this country’s great trainers, Elizabeth Way is now 2-for-2.
While the filly won her maiden from off the pace, she was eager to go on Saturday in a tough Grade 3 stakes. She employed opposite tactics Saturday, quickly establishing the lead on the front-stretch on her way to setting fractions of 23,76 and 48.9 seconds for the first half-mile with only mild pressure to her outside by English Affair. The Irish-bred filly continued to show the way around the far turn before heavy pressure developed behind her on the turn into the homestretch. Although her pursuers were in full flight in the stretch, Elizabeth Way was able to kick away to score by 1 ¼ lengths.
La Signare finished second under Tyler Gaffalione, a neck ahead of Romantic Pursuit and Joe Bravo.
Elizabeth Way ran 1 3/16 miles over a firm turf course in 1:54.25 for an 88 Beyer Speed Figure according to Daily Racing Form.
“The plan was to just let her run her race; it was as simple as that,” winning trainer Roger Attfield said later.”The gentleman that owns the horse [John McCormack] was really keen to do this and I still think that she’s going to be better as she goes farther. When she popped out of there, we were just hoping that maybe she could get some black type. She’s been training super well the last 10 days, so it didn’t really surprise me that she’d run really well, but I didn’t think she’d do it all the way on the lead.”
John McCormack poses with his filly Elizabeth Way (he is third from the left of her head, beside assistant Susie Lorimer). Roger Attfield trains – Gulfstream Park photo
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