Excitement for Horsepeople as Woodbine Opens April 16

A quick press junket with Sovereign Award Outstanding Trainer finalists for 2021 JOSIE CARROLL and KEVIN ATTARD kicked off entry day for the first of 133 racing dates for the 71st Woodbine Thoroughbred season April 16.

A card of eight races was put together for Saturday, with a first race post time of 1:10. The featured race is the $100,000 Long Branch Stakes, named for the former racetrack in south Etobicoke. A nice field of fillies and mares will dash 5 1/2 furlongs including another Sovereign Award finalist, OUR SECRET AGENT, who is up for Champion Female Sprinter Thursday night at the 47th annual Sovereign award ceremony in Vaughan.

“Everybody’s really excited to get back at it,” said Kevin Attard. “The last couple of years, with COVID-19, there was so much chaos just getting horses ready. Then when the season was delayed [for two years straight] you had horses ready to run, but no racing.”

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Attard spent a second consecutive winter in Ontario in 2022 rather than taking horses to Florida. He rented part of the old Gardiner Farms, now Winview, and had horses training there since January.

“We have had to deal with mother nature a bit, it has been a bit harsh at times but for the most part we’re all set to go now. I was fortunate to have the farm to train at but there are a lot of other trainers who did not have that and every day counts once you get to Woodbine to train.”

Attard is excited to have some of his stars from 2021 back in action. MOIRA, one of the top 2-year-okd fillies of last year, recently had her first workout back and she is being pointed to the Woodbine Oaks in late July. MUNNYFOR RO, the probable Champion 3-Year-Old Filly at the Sovereign Awards, had a remarkable campaign in 2021, winning two-thirds of the Triple Tiara including the Oaks.

“She wintered in Ocala, Florida with Niall Brennan and she is with Brian Lynch now. She may make a start in the States before coming back here.”

Attard, who had any number of Queen’s Plate contenders in 2021 and ran four in the prestigious race (HC Holiday finished third) has another group of young horses he hopes will be in the Plate hunt come August 21.

“Terra Farms have a nice one named Justin’s Way; he broke his maiden in his second start and we thought highly of him last year. I think he can have a big future. We have some unraced ones such as Dryden, a son of Empire Maker, and he is training well and looks the part.”

Attard has 65 in training currently at Woodbine and has entered two for opening day.

Josie Carroll, a member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, is closing in on 900 career wins as a trainer with 894 victories currently. “We had a quiet winter [in Florida] but I am really excited about what we have in the barn this year. We have a lot of nice horses coming up from the States; Boardroom is back and a horse called Striker who is going to run in the Jacques Cartier Stakes.”

Boardroom, one of the land’s top female sprinters in 2020 and 2021, raced just twice last year and won two graded stakes races before an injury sidelined her.

Carroll also has Sovereign Award finalist Avie’s Flatter (Turf Male, Male Sprinter) ready to come back in 2022 for Ivan Dalos. The consistently good horse, the Champion 2-year-old in 2018, is one of a large contingent of horses owned and bred by Dalos.

“I am really excited about having a lot more horses for the Ontario sired program this year,’ said Carroll. “A lot of them are owned by Mr. Dalos and are by his sires.”

Of course, Carroll’s star runner of the last two years, MIGHTY HEART, the one-eyed wonder, is also set to get back to racing soon. Now 5 years old, Mighty Heart, owned and bred by Larry Cordes, won the 2020 Queen’s Plate and Princes of Wales Stakes and was a multiple graded stakes winner in 2021. The son of Dramedy is up for Champion Older Male on Thursday night and is a contender for a second straight Horse of the Year title.

“We are targeting the Ben Ali Stakes at Keeneland for his first start (April 23) but that will be based on his workout next weekend. I want make sure he is tight enough to go the 1 1/8 miles. If he’s not, he will come up to Woodbine (for the May 29 Eclipse Stakes).”