TORONTO, April 8 – El Brujo, a four-year-old son of Candy Ride, will look to duplicate his monster seasonal debut of 2009, this time in Sunday’s $150,000 Jacques Cartier Stakes, at Woodbine.
Bred and owned by Windways Farm and trained by Malcolm Pierce, El Brujo’s first start last year, the six-furlong Achievement Stakes on April 11, resulted in an 8 ¾-length romp over the Woodbine Polytrack.
Pierce wouldn’t mind seeing a repeat of the Achievement score in the six-furlong Jacques Cartier, which marks El Brujo’s seasonal bow.
“I would have to say that was one of his most impressive wins to date,” said Pierce, who is currently training at Keeneland, but will return to the Toronto oval in two weeks. “He was in really good order last spring and he turned it into a really strong year on the track.”
In eight starts, El Brujo won four races, all added-money features, along with one second, for earnings in excess of $315,000.
Two of the wins came in the U.S. On September 26, El Brujo, as the favourite, took the Grade 3 Kentucky Cup Sprint at Turfway Park, before another Grade 3 score at Keeneland, this time in the Perryville Stakes.
Prior to those victories, the bay gelding, who finished out of the money in the Queen’s Plate in June, won the aforementioned Achievement and the Queenston Stakes.
El Brujo capped off his three-year-old campaign with a seventh-place finish in the Grade 3 Kennedy Road Stakes on November 21 at Woodbine.
“It was a tough race and it didn’t pan out,” offered Pierce.
“Perhaps we squeezed the lemon a little too hard in racing him after the two Kentucky races. If we had to do it over, we maybe wouldn’t have run him.”
El Brujo received much-deserved Sovereign Award nominations in the champion sprinter and champion three-year-old male categories, in which he finished second in both. Pierce was third in voting for champion trainer honours.
“The two races in the U.S. were phenomenal,” praised Pierce, of the Ontario-bred, who broke his maiden on October 10, 2008, at six furlongs on the Woodbine Polytrack. “It was a great year for him. Based on that, we put the same program together for him for this year.”
A strong start to the year would certainly have Pierce beaming.
“He’s worked so well here in Kentucky,” said Pierce, who will van El Brujo to Woodbine tonight. “It would be great to start the same way we did last year.”
The Jacques Cartier, which goes as race six, will also feature last year’s Sovereign champion male sprinter, Field Commission, who will leave the gate from post one. Hollywood Hit, third in sprinter voting, starts from post five.
FIELD FOR THE JACQUES CARTIER
Post / Horse / Jockey / Trainer
1 / Field Commission / Emile Ramsammy / Dan Vella
2 / Monty’s Best / Eurico Rosa da Silva / Reade Baker
3 / Written in Stone / Corey Fraser / Mark Frostad
4 / El Brujo / Patrick Husbands / Malcolm Pierce
5 / Hollywood Hit / Jim McAleney / Danny O’Callaghan
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