There are four stakes races, three graded, at Woodbine on Saturday, October 5, for the Fall Turf Showcase afternoon and the rich events have lured plenty of invaders.
There are 18 shippers entered in the four stakes races including seven in the $200,000 Dance Smartly Stakes (G2) and six in the $250,000 Nearctic Staes (G2).
The locals better have their best running shoes on.
Canadian Horse of the Year of 2023 FEV ROVER (IRE) shortens up in distance for the 1 1/16 mile Dance Smartly on the E.P. Taylor turf course and the six-year-old mare is scheduled to sell at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale in Kentucky so this could be her final race.
Tracy Farmer owns Fev Rover who is seeking her first win of 2024 in her fifth start.
The Irish-bred was a close second behind 2023 Horse of the Year Moira in the Aug. 11 Beverly D. (G2T) at Colonial Downs, the race in which she had become a Grade 1 stakes winner when it offered that status the previous year.
In her latest outing here on Sep. 14, Fev Rover was the defending champion in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor, a 1 ¼ mile turf race in which she ended a well-beaten third behind runner-up Moira and that one’s stablemate Full Count Felicia, who had opened a lead which at one point measured 19 lengths through slow fractions.
“It was weird,” said Casse, who had watched Fev Rover settle behind the runaway leader and eventually give up the pace in the closing stages. “I don’t know what to think. Maybe the ground was a little too hard for her?”
Winning this year’s Dance Smartly will be no easy task for Fev Rover, who has Sahin Civaci on board for the first time.
In the field is South African Horse of the Year PRINCESS CALLA (SAF), a winner of 12 of 28 races and multiple Group 1’s from 5 furlongs to 9 furlongs. The seven-year-old mare by Flower Alley was purchased by American owner John Stewart this past March and she has been in training with Chad Brown. Princess Calla will race with Lasix for the first time.
A strong effort by Princess Calla could lead to her heading to the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar next month. Read more here.
Brown has also entered TAX IMPLICATIONS (GB), winner of the Grade 3 Eatontown Stakes at Monmouth in June.
Graded stakes winners NADETTE (FR), MISSION OF JOY and millionaire SPARKLE BLUE are also notable entrants in the Dance Smartly which is race 8 on Saturday. (An in-depth handicapping column on thebet365 Dance Smartly can be found in the features section on our home page).
The NEARCTIC STAKES at 6 furlongs on the Taylor turf (which will close for the season after this weekend and be refurbished) and Ontario hotshot PATCHES O’HOULIHAN, winner of three straight, will test grass for just the third time in a strong field.
The Nearctic is a big field that includes invaders such as OUTLAW KID, LET MY PEOPLE GO, BRINGTHEBAND HOME and Woodbine hotshots FLAG OF HONOUR (Aus) and WAR BOMBER (Ire).
Race 6 is the Grade 3 HPIBet Singspiel Stakes at 1 3/8 miles and that large field includes Grade 1 winner HIGHLAND CHIEF (Ire) from trainer Graham Motion’s stable. That seven-year-old seeks his first win since 2022. One of the probable favourites is Augustin Stables’ TRULY QUALITY, trained by Jonathan Thomas. This four-year-old son of Quality Road won the Colonial Cup in his first stakes attempt on Sept. 7 at 1 1/2 miles and smashed the course record by two seconds, winning that race in 2:25.16.
Race 5 is the $175,000 Algonquin Stakes at 5 furlongs on the inner turf for two-year-olds and the eight-horse field has five Mark Casse trainees. There are also five fillies entered including My Dear Stakes winner BULLET and FRENCH HORN, who was third in the Astoria Stakes at Saratoga in June.
On SUNDAY, the Cup & Saucer Stakes for Canadian-bred two-year-olds, while not as compelling as Saturday’s races, offers a big prize to the winner. The $250,000 event at 1 1/16 miles on the E.P. Taylor turf has two stakes winners in the field, Scorching, winner of the Simcoe stakes, and Dewolf, winner of the Bull Page Stakes.
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