Hall of Fame horseman Roger Attfield’s homebred filly Gun Society took to the Tapeta in top form as she rallied from last to first to win her stakes debut in the $100,000 South Ocean under jockey Kazushi Kimura early Saturday afternoon at Woodbine Racetrack.
Kimura, ‘KK’ won four races on the 11-race card to move within just two win of second place in the rider’s standings behind Rafael Hernandez, 137-135. Eurico Rosa Da Silva has 159 wins to lead the standings. In fact, the three top riders won 10 of 11 races on the day.
Gun Society, the newest stakes winner for the Ontario sire Society’s Chairman-Double Guns Girl by Langfuhr filly had a record reading 1-1-2 from five starts on turf entering Saturday’s main track feature. Fresh off a maiden-breaking victory in mid-October over the South Ocean’s 1-1/16-mile distance, Gun Society was the 7-1 third choice in a field of six Ontario-sired two-year-old fillies.
Gun Society had trailed the field as much as 14 lengths through quick opening splits of :23.03 and :46.73 before launching her attack. She began to pass rivals heading to the final turn in pursuit of the front-striding favourite Owlette, who was riding a three-race win streak including stakes wins in the Shady Well and Victorian Queen but trying two turns for the first time.
The Wesley Ward-trained Owlette reached three-quarters in 1:12.30 with 4-1 second choice She’s a Dream keeping pace until that point while the rest of the field had gapped eight lengths down the backstretch. Meanwhile, Gun Society had advanced into contention and was about to take over second-place before matching strides with the 2-5 favourite off the final turn.
In a battle that lasted the length of the stretch, Gun Society eventually wore down Owlette to win by a half-length in 1:45.34. November Fog closed from off the pace to finish back in third with Bambarra Bay passing She’s a Dream in deep stretch and Wake Up Maggie completing the field.
Gun Society paid $16.10 to win and $3.90 to place. There was no show wagering.
Moving to the Tapeta wasn’t a concern for Kimura. “When she got on Tapeta in the morning, she felt so nice,” he noted, adding, “She just kept going, she’s such a nice horse.”
Attfield bought Double Guns Girl, a half sister to graded stakes winner Breaking Lucky, as a yearling for himself and Harlequin Ranches. She won 1 of 8 races and her first foal is the 3-year-old filly Twomanyshots, who has a second-place finish in two career starts.
*Trainer Kevin Attard won three races on Saturday including a maiden 2-year-old race with ACT OF BOB, a Souper Speedy youngsters from the mare Featherwing by Rockp[ort Harbor. The dark bay colt is owned by Mad River Farm and was bred by Northern Dawn Farm of Sherry McLean.
~ with files from Woodbine Communications
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