The winter season has arrived and a majority of Canadian horses and trainers are staying put, awaiting the opening of training early in 2021.
There are some stables that have headed south, however, with horses who are set to have a race or two or are in need of continued training perhaps at the request of an owner.
Trainers such as Roger Attfield, Gail Cox and Josie Carroll already have horses at Payson Park or Palm Meadows training centres in Florida.
Carroll reports that Queen’s Plate and Prince of Wales winner MIGHTY HEART is now on his way to Michael Cooke’s training and layup farm in Dunnellon, FL, for some R & R. The colt finished fourth in the Grade 3 Ontario Derby in his final outing of 2020.
“Even though he was training very well into [the Ontario Derby] I think we saw when he ran that he was a more tired horse than we thought,” said Carroll. “It was a very hard campaign. He will be turned out for about a month and then he will come to Palm Meadows.”
Carroll said the plan is to aim the colt for a dirt race at Gulfstream since the colt handled that surface well in his Prince of Wales win.
Carroll has her first December starter on Saturday at Gulfstream in race 1 as Ontario-bred DANCE WITH DESTINY (Flintshire (GB)) is #5 in a maiden turf race, her third career race. Owned by Di Scola Boys and bred by Kingview Farms and Doug Anderson, the filly was recently seventh in the Princess Elizabeth Stakes.
GOLDEN AMI, the undefeated 4-year-old filly of Ivan Dalos, is scheduled to compete in the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl Stakes at 6 furlongs at Gulfstream on Dec. 12.
Dalos’ COURT RETURN, second in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes, is targeting the Dec. 10 Via Borghese Stakes at 1 3/16 miles on turf on Dec. 19. Court Return, winner of the Victoriana Stakes in 2020, is on the short list of contenders for a Sovereign Award for Champion Turf Female.
Josie, a member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, is coming off arguably the best year of her distinguished career even amidst the difficult circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a strong contender to win her first Sovereign Award for Outstanding Trainer.
“This was a great year in spite of everything,” said Carroll.
There is some other Canadian content in action on the first weekend of December 2020:
*ARTIE’S PRINCESS, winner of the Grade 2 Bessarabian Stakes at Woodbine over older horses in her most recent start, heads a big field of sprinting fillies in the Holiday Inaugural Stakes at Turfway Park this evening (Friday). The Ontario-bred by We Miss Artie, who also won the Ruling Angel Stakes in 2020 for Ken and Sarah Ramsay and trainer Wesley Ward, is a contender for Champion Female Sprinter in Canada. Her race Friday is the 5th on a card that begins at 6:15 p.m.
*CAFE SOCIETY is in post 6 for the Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct on Saturday. The Ontario-bred by Empire Maker – Full Tap by Tapit was bred by Anderson Farms Ontario, Inc. and won her career debut at Belmont in October, racing 6 furlongs in 1:10 4/5 for a 73 Beyer Figure. The bay gal, a $475,000 yearling purchase owned by Allen Stable and trained by Shug McGaughey, was recently third in the Tempted Stakes.
*STEVEN CHIRCOP sends out SWEET YARE N DIRA in a $90,000 starter stakes race on Claiming Crown day at Gulfstream on Saturday. Chircop co-owns and trains the 6-year-old mare who was claimed for $16,000 in March from a race at Gulfstream and won 3 races at Woodbine this season.
*Friday at Laurel, Brian Wright’s SOCIETY’S TIGER competes in an allowance race on dirt for trainer Katerina Vassilieva. The homebred has post 7 and is 6 to 1 in the morning line odds. Wright and friend Kevin Drew were recently featured in a story at Ontario Racing about the stakes-winning filly Jilli Marie, found here.
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