Canadian/Woodbine Hopes at Del Mar Breeders' Cup

Trainer KEVIN ATTARD, fresh off an eight-win week at Woodbine, will be out at ‘ole Del Mar shortly to guide the mares MOIRA, a Canadian Horse of the Year, and American-owned FULL COUNT FELICIA, into the $2 million Filly & Mare Turf on November 2.

Canada’s Queen, Moira, is likely making her last start for the ownership group of X-Men Racing, SF Bloodstock and Madaket Stables, most of whom have raced the Ghostzapper five-year-old since she won her career debut in the Princess Elizabeth Stakes at Woodbine.

Moira won her first US graded stakes race this year when she won the Grade 2 Beverly D at Colonial Downs. This is her third appearance at the Breeders’ Cup as she was third last year at Santa Anita and fifth at Keeneland in 2022.

Scroll to continue with content

Flavian Prat will ride Moira in the 1 3/8 mile Filly & Mare Turf and the distance will be ideal for the champion. Moira will then head to Kentucky where she will once again be sent through The November Sale at Fasig-Tipton.

Full Count Felicia upset Moira in the E.P. Taylor Stakes (G1) with a wild front-running style, opening up some 15 lengths and running the best race of her career. She tries this longer distance for the first time for owner Gold Square LLC. Attard started training her in June and sent her to two graded wins.

Seize the Grey’s 2,570 owners include Canadians

MyRacehorse.com’s SEIZE THE GREY has already had a superb season for his thousands of owners. The grey son of the late, great Arrogate, trained by the legendary D. Wayne Lukas, came to the fore this summer when he won the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes over Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan. The three-year-old had a couple of dull outings after that but bounced back with a win in the Pennsylvania Derby (G1) on Sept. 21.

On Saturday, Seize the Grey will compete in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Mile , starting from post 6 in a bulky 14-horse field.

Seize the Grey is the latest superstar for MyRacehorse, a fractional racehorse ownership syndicate that offers shares in well-bred, high-priced auction purchases for a low sum.

Seize the Grey was bought for $300,000 at the 2022 Fasig Tipton August yearling sale and was offered on the MyRacehorse app for $127 per share for 0.02% equity.

Canadians were able to buy shares at the outset of the group’s launch and there are plenty of folks in the north who have a few hairs on Seize the Grey’s coat.

“It was just a simple and inexpensive way to have a horse to cheer for,” said Shauna Campbell, who is an Ontario horse owner, breeder and all-around racing fan. “He was only a yearling when my friend Rebecca Gullett and I bought into him, and I had been obsessed with Arrogate when he was running. Both Rebecca and I grew up in the heyday of D.Wayne Lukas so it was a simple decision to buy in.”

There are other owners from Canada too (and whoever won the naming contest for the colt used the Canadian spelling of ‘grey’!) including Kelly Canham-Tonkin from New Brunswick and Lola Nichol from southern Ontario.

Mark Casse well-represented, Husbands Returns to Breeders’ Cup

La Cara, trained by Mark E. Casse, exercises in preparation for the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, California on October 28, 2024. (Tere Poplin/Eclipse Sportswire/Breeders Cup)

Woodbine’s leading trainer MARK CASSE is looking to add to his Breeders’ Cup win total of six with a collection of juveniles and his Woodbine Mile (G1) winner WIN FOR THE MONEY.

Tracy Farmer’s LA CARA (Street Sense) is in the Juvenile Fillies on Friday coming off a win in the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill Downs. She has drawn post four with Ricardo Santana and is 12-to-1.

Casse has three in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, NITROGEN (Medaglia D’oro) who is a maiden but was third in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine. Jose Ortiz has the mount from post 2 and the pair are 15-to-1. In post 10 is ABIENTOT (Not This Time) another Tracy Farmer filly and winner of the Grade 3 Matron Stakes in her last start. And Natalma runner-up VIXEN (Vekoma), who recently lured a co-owner as D.J. Stable has sold a share to Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, is in post 13 with John Velazquez.

DREAM ON, owned by D J Stables LLC, was third in the Grade 1 Summer at Woodbine and is in post 2 for the Juvenile Turf with Jose Ortiz on board.

And Canadian Hall of Famer PATRICK HUSBANDS will ride for his first Cup win on board Win for the Money, who is 30-to-1 in the Mile and has post 10. Husbands was second in the 2008 Filly & Mare Turf aboard Sealy Hill and third in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Delegation.

Here’s an interesting fact: Win for the Money’s owner Live Oak Stable has won two Breeders’ Cup races and both of them were the Mile (World Approval and Miesque’s Approval).