The $150,000 Grade 3 Dominion Day stakes for four-year-olds and older is one of five graded stakes on Saturday’s Canada Day Racing card at Woodbine. The 1 1/8 mile event on the main Tapeta track will go as Race 9 and has attracted seven hopefuls, including Ontario-bred Wyoming Bill, trained, and now owned, in part, by Catherine Day Phillips.
Wyoming Bill will be ridden by Emma-Jayne Wilson.
A chestnut son of Curlin out of the Rahy mare Dixie Chicken, Wyoming Bill has earned $234,385 lifetime and is graded stakes placed thanks to finishing just a head behind Gas Me Up in the $200,000 bet365 King Edward Stakes (Grade 2) in August of 2025. Wyoming Bill was also in the field for last year’s $1 million Rogers Woodbine Mile (Grade 1), finishing eighth in a race won by Notable Speech (GB).
“I think this race, the timing was very good,” Day Phillips said of the Dominion Day. “The distance made sense. [Wyoming Bill] just won by a mile and a 16th, which gave us five weeks into this race at a mile and an eighth. So, I think that it’s a logical stepping stone. I think he will most likely end up back on the turf. We’ll just have to see how this race goes and make up our mind from there.
“He is very versatile. He’ll run on the synthetic. He also is very good on the turf, distance wise. He can be competitive at seven-eighths. He’s also won in a mile and an eighth… He has a lot of personality, and he’s run hard for us pretty much whenever he’s run.
“In the morning, when he marches onto the track, he stands there and stares off into the distance. He thinks he’s the head lion of the group, He’s very confident, he’s a very proud horse, and it’s exciting to see a horse with that much confidence.”
Bred in by Ontario by Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry, Wyoming Bill was raced by the couple after being an RNA at $390,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. At the end of 2025, Day Phillips purchased Wyoming Bill from the Fitzhenrys for $130,000 at the Fasig-Tipton December Digital Selected Sale.
“I have trained him since he was a 2-year-old, and he is really coming into his own as a 4-year-old,” Day Phillips said. “The Fitzhenrys decided that they wanted to put him in the digital sale, and I felt I couldn’t let him get away from our world… We put together a little group of friends that was born of a late night Christmas party… and we were able to buy him. So that was great.
The group calls itself the Latitude Adjustment Stable. Day Phillips said the name is, “probably related to the Christmas party. We’ll just leave that one for now. That’s for other people to explain.”
This year, Wyoming Bill has earnings of $54,616 and a record of 1-1-0 in two Allowance Optional Claiming starts, winning his last outing on May 23.
“His breeding is outstanding,” Day Phillips said. “We had [his dam] Dixie Chicken, and she’s had lots of very good runners, including Dixie Moon, and including Tom’s Magic who raced last year in the Triple Crown races… It’s a great family that we’re very familiar with and [Wyoming Bill] just feels like he’s part of the family.”
Kevin Pena Salgado is Wyoming Bill’s groom.
Fast Facts: Friuli won the inaugural running in 1979. Funtastic Again, trained by Wesley Ward, won last year’s edition.
Roger Attfield has won six editions of the Dominion Day, including in 2019 with Are You Kidding Me.
Wagering menu for the Dominion Day includes: Rolling Double / Exacta / 0.20 Trifecta / 0.20 Superfecta / 0.20 Pick 3 (Races 9-10-11) / $1 Swinger.
Need to know: First race post time on Saturday is 1:00 p.m. Fans can wager on all the action through HPIbet.com.
Field for the $150,000 Dominion Day Stakes – Race 9
Post – Horse – Jockey – Trainer
1 – Paramount Prince – Fraser Aebly – Mark Casse
2 – Runaway Again – Ryan Munger – Sid Attard
3 – Wyoming Bill – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Catherine Day Phillips
4 – Swift Delivery – Pietro Moran – Mark Casse
5 – Whiskey N Soda – Sahin Civaci – Devon Gittens
6 – Saugeen – Kazushi Kimura – Josie Carroll
7 – Notorious Gangster – Rafael Hernandez – Josie Carroll
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