Seven horses were entered Thursday for the 90th Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie Race Track on Sept. 9. The second jewel of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown is race 9 on Tuesday at 1 3/16 miles on the dirt. Post time for the Wales is 5:35 p.m.
The 2024 Sovereign Award-winning trainer Kevin Attard has entered Mansetti (Collected) into the race in a bid to keep the horse’s run at the Triple Crown going. Having already won the King’s Plate at Woodbine in August, Mansetti enters the race as the horse to beat at 2-1 odds. Riding the horse will be Pietro Moran, a rapidly rising star in the world of horse racing, who at just 20 years old became one of the youngest jockeys to ever win the King’s Plate. On Tuesday, Moran was at Fort Erie Race Track to give Mansetti a feel for the dirt trick. The change of surface from synthetic track at Woodbine, to the more traditional dirt course in Fort Erie, can sometimes prove tricky for horses running for the Triple Crown, but Moran said he thinks it will be a smooth transition for Mansetti.
“It’s a different surface but I don’t think it will matter with him because he’s such a talented horse, he doesn’t seem concerned,” said Moran as he guided Mansetti around the historic border oval in the early morning hours on Tuesday. Owned by son and father duo Al and Bill Ulwelling of Elk River, Minnesota, the pair are looking for their third Prince of Wales Stakes victory, after winning the race twice in the last three years.
As for having an opportunity to take a run at the Triple Crown at such a young age, Moran said he’s trying to take it all in, and rely on the horse to do its job.
“We’re just going to take it one step at a time,” said Moran. “You definitely need a special kind of horse if you want to have a shot at the Triple Crown, and I think we’ve got one here with Mansetti. We’ve already got one race out of the way, now we’re looking for the second, and he’s got a great chance, so we’ll see what happens next Tuesday.”
Two other Attard-trained horses will be running in the Stakes, including Dewolf (7-2) and Faber (5-1) who is also owned by the Ulwellings.
Dewolf was fifth in the Plate and Rafael Hernandez will ride. Faber will be ridden by Sahin Civaci.
Rounding out the field of seven is the Plate fourth-place finisher Scorching (3-1) trained by John Charalambous with New York rider Dylan Davis coming up to ride, the supplemented Runaway Again (10-1) trained by Sid Attard; Ashley’s Archer (10-1) trained by Mark Casse and a half brother to 2014 Wales winner Coltimus Prime and Dr. Rolph Davis’s Humber River (12-1), an improving grey gelding trained by Bob Tiller completes the field.
Noticeably absent from the entries was Notorious Gangster, who was third in the Plate. Trainer Josie Carroll told Canadian Thoroughbred that she and owner Mark Dodson were not happy with how the colt came out of his latest work.
The race card that day also includes the $100,000 Ontario Sire Heritage Series races — the Rondeau Bay Stakes and Lake Erie Stakes — alongside Fort Erie’s twin $30,000 cup races, the Molson Cup and Le Cinquieme Essai Cup.
~ with files from Fort Erie Race Track Media
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