La Prevoyante Stakes Saturday: Clair Must Be Caught

HURRICANE CLAIR has had a very nice career for owner David Rowbotham and ‘Partners 3’ out of Alberta and she just might be able to wrap up her four-year-old campaign with a third stakes victory in the Dec. 13 La Prevoyante Stakes, worth $100,000. The 1 1/16 race on the Tapeta is the ninth of 10 races on the second-to-last day of racing at Woodbine for 2025.

Hurricane Clair was bought by Rowbotham for $35,000 as a yearling in 2022 and she won the Muskoka Stakes in her first career start. At times a headstrong gal, the daughter of Silent Name (JPN) – Hurricane Lorraine by Weather Warning also won the Wonder Where Stakes at 10 furlongs on the grass in 2024. This season she has been in some very tough events, the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor and Grade 2 Dance Smartly, both races on the turf.

The La Prevoyante marks a significant drop in class as it is restricted to Ontario-sired fillies and mares. Trainer Martin Drexler has taken the blinkers off for Hurricane Clair’s run on Saturday, likely because the filly was very rank in the 1 1/4 mile Maple Leaf Stakes (G3) last time against tougher. In the La Prevoyante, Hurricane Clair could easily be the lone speed in the race, should Eswan Flores elect to send his mount from the gate.

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Hurricane Clair was bred by Helen Bruno’s Bru-Mel Stables Co. and she is the richest horse in the eight-horse field.

Her main competition will come from Ashbridges Bay Stakes winner ELLA IT IS (Point of Entry), who has had a good second half of the season for Heste Sport Inc. SECRET LOAD, owned and bred by the late Paul Buttigieg and trained by Rick Hiyashi, is going to like the chance to move out to a route distance again, and the lightly-raced HINT stayed on to be second to Ella It Is last time and might be good enough.

Drexler was two wins away from hitting 100 wins in a season for the third straight year as of Thursday, December 11. In the last two seasons when he used Flores as his rider, Drexler had 20 percent wins. Flores is in the midst of one of the top years of his career, and is having his best year by purses.