The Seagram Cup has changed a lot since its first running in 1903 at the Old Woodbine Racetrack. A race on dirt, it was named in honour of owner/breeder Joseph E. Seagram whose Seagram Stables dominated Canadian racing at the time and who had won Canada’s most prestigious race, the Queen’s Plate, eight consecutive times between 1891 and 1898.
That first winner of the Seagram was Easy Street, owned by Nathanial Dyment. There were several years the race was not held but some of the high-profile winners during the Old Woodbine years were stars Canadian Champ and Canadian Triple Crown winner New Providence.
With the cessation of Thoroughbred racing at Old Woodbine, the Seagram Cup was moved to the new Woodbine Racetrack and in 1959 became a race on turf. As a grass handicap the race was won by a litany of great Canadian racehorses such as He’s a Smoothie, Bridle Path and Sky Classic.
In 1998 the Seagram Cup reverted to being run permanently on dirt with the 2007 edition marking the first time it would be raced on an all-weather surface.
Hall of Fame trainer JOSIE CARROLL can tie the record for most wins in the race by a trainer at four as she sends out TYSON in the 106th Seagram Cup (G2) on July 29. Tyson will be odds-on for owners Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings and Stretch Run V, also the breeders of the handsome grey/roan son of Tapit – Honouring by Smart Strike.
Tyson meets just five rivals in the 1 1/16 Seagram, worth $175,000, and his 100 Beyer Speed Figure he earned in his Dominion Day Stakes (G3) romp on July 1, makes him very strong.
The colt has won three of four races and two of three since the one year layoff that followed his debut win at Gulfstream Park in March 2022 for trainer Todd Pletcher. The colt came to Canada and won his return and then was third in the Eclipse Stakes (G2) to stablemate Treason. He turned the tables on that guy in the Dominion Day, which was at 1 1/8 miles. Rafael Hernandez rides.
Tyson is the first runner out of the winning Smart Strike mare Honouring. A half-sister to Grade 1 winner Streaming and stakes winners Treasuring and Cascading, as well as stakes performers Distracting and Gifting, she is one of five stakes producers out of the Better Than Honour daughter Teeming.
Tapit has had great success with the family, including stakes performers by stallion under Tyson’s first two dams, including Grade 2 winner Greatest Honour and stakes performers Sweet as Pie and Soaring. Honouring’s Tapit half-sister, Modeling, is also the dam of this year’s Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Arcangelo.
“He’s a beautifully-bred horse from a family cultivated for about 30 years,” said John Sikura of Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings. “It’s a family that means a lot to me and is very rewarding to the farm. It’s a very important vehicle for our success.”
Sikura, inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2018, hadn’t originally planned to keep the impeccably-bred colt, but that changed after the 2020 Keeneland Association September Yearling Sale.
“It’s very unusual for us to keep a colt. That wasn’t the original plan. We offered him as a yearling at what I believe was a very reasonable reserve ($250,000). But he didn’t get sold.”
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