A few American trainers will once again have stalls at Woodbine this season and among those is SAFFIE JOSEPH JR., who won another title in Florida, this time the Gulfstream Park Championship meet. Joseph is familiar with racing horses at Woodbine and has about a dozen stalls there this year. Other trainers from the U.S. who will have horses at Woodbine with assistants of their own or local trainers include Jonathan Thomas and Kelsey Danner.
Joseph is pointing some of his star horses for stakes races at Woodbine this spring including Gentry Farms’ ACCOMPLISHED GIRL who won the Grade 2 Presque Isle Masters last September. Recently the filly has been racing on the turf, finishing a close second in the Suwannee River Stakes (G2) in December at Gulfstream.
After finishing eighth in the Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G2), Accomplished cut back sharply to five furlongs and was fifth in the the black-type Captiva Island. Joseph said to Horse Racing Nation, “We tried her long, and she ran … second and then she ran in the Pegasus Turf and then we cut her back the other day. We thought that’s her best distance. She ran uncharacteristically, just ran flat. So we’ll freshen her up and there’s a stake for her, a Grade 3 at Woodbine opening week.” That’s the Whimsical on May 4.
The Whimsical could also lure Gary Barber’s stakes-winning mare Miss Speedy, a recent winner at Gulfstream.
MYSTIC LAKE (Mo Town), who won the Sophomore Fillies Stakes on Mar. 24 at Tampa Bay Downs, will return to Woodbine shortly and she is a fan of the Tapeta surface. Mystic Lake won her maiden at Woodbine on Sept. 9 and was a close second in the Glorious Song Stakes and third in the Grade 3 Mazarine last fall. In January she won the Gasparilla Stakes on dirt at Tampa.
“We had run her on the turf the race before, and that Florida-bred stake seemed to be coming up a bit easier, and we thought we would just run her back there. It wasn’t initially in the plans, but it worked out well because that was back on the dirt again, and she won well and received some good figures on it. The plan for her is to send her up to Canada. She’s going to run in a few stakes up there.”
The first stakes race for Mystic Lake would be the Star Shoot Stakes on opening day, April 27.
***
MY BOY PRINCE, the probable two-year-old champion in Canada for 2023 and early favourite for the King’s Plate, returns to action on Sunday at Keeneland in the $250,000 Palisades Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf. The son of Cairo Prince, owned by Gary Barber and trained by Mark Casse, has post eight in a field of 12. He is listed at 7-to-2 in the morning line odds with Joel Rosario riding.
Casse, who already has a full barn at Woodbine, has a newcomer to Ontario in SOUTH BEND, a stakes winner and graded stakes-placed gelding who has not raced since late in 2022.
More from Canadian Thoroughbred:
