Trainer LORNE RICHARDS didn’t know what to think when his Champion three-year-old colt of 2024, DRESDEN ROW, flopped at 2-to-5 in his most recent, an allowance event at Woodbine. Jockey RYAN MUNGER was similarly ‘dumbfounded’.
The flashy chestnut colt, owned by Keith Johns’ True North Stables and Jeffrey Bloom’s Bloom Racing, had had all kinds of bad luck to begin his four-year-old season. He had a pair of second-place finishes to Swift Delivery in the Seagram Cup (G3) and Durham Cup (G3) to longshot Cool Kiss, and then came the head-scratching outing on Oct. 19.
When entries were taken for Saturday’s Grade 3 Autumn Stakes at 1 1/8 miles, Richards hemmed and hawed.
“For the last week, I’ve been trying to find a reason not to run him, but I just couldn’t see any reason not to.”
Good thing he did. Dresden Row and Munger put together a perfect outing behind a fast pace battle between Funtastic Again and Paramount Prince, and the pair zoomed to 1 3/4 length win over closing Jokestar for owners Al and Bill Ulwelling and trainer Kevin Attard, who also won with the promising Ontario bred two-year-old filly La Culasse earlier in the day.
Cameo Performance came up the rail to be third for trainer Brendan Walsh and jockey Declan Cannon, the same pair that won the Grade 3 Bessarabian Stakes with Godolphin’s Pondering a race before.
The time for the Autumn was 1:50.07 over a track that got faster through the afternoon.
“For once this year, thank goodness, the race worked out perfect,” said Munger. “The pace was genuine in front, and there were two nice horses that will pull me through quite a long way up. And yeah, he relaxed quite nicely in behind them. And you know, when he leveled out in the stretch, he hit the front, his ears were still up, and I was like, ‘He’s back.’
“Barring his last run (third, 12 lengths behind winner Paramount Prince at 1 1/16 miles over the main track on October 19), he’s been right there. The last run caught me a bit dumbfounded. But today, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, he came back. He did it, and I’m just so grateful for that.”
Dresden Row brightened things for Richards and company as the wins have been hard to come by in 2025. This was the second win for Richards this year. Dresden Row, by Lord Nelson, was a $70,000 2-year-old in training purchase in April 2023. He has won 6 of 14 races and over $470,000.
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