Eugene Melnyk’s Leigh Court made every pole a winning one to capture Saturday’s $128,250 La Lorgnette Stakes, at Woodbine.
Trained by Josie Carroll, the dark bay daughter of Grand Slam-Padmore entered the 1 1/16-mile ‘Poly’ stake off of consecutive added-money scores in the Duchess and grassy Grade 3 Ontario Colleen Stakes.
Gary Boulanger has piloted Leigh Court through her last four starts, taking over on June 30 when he guided the front-runner to a second-place run in an allowance sprint.
The veteran rider effectively settled the speedy Leigh Court in the La Lorgnette, notching splits of :24.19 and :47.86 while keeping plenty in reserve to fend off the rallying Overheard and Spring in the Air to notch a 5 1/4-length win. Leigh Court covered 1 1/16-miles in 1:43.32.
Allowing Leigh Court to relax in the early going was key to the filly’s third career stakes score.
“That’s been the big key with her,” said Boulanger. “She was pretty settled for her. A :47 and four half-mile is really easy for her. In the middle of the turn, I heard them coming and she kind of pinned her ears. I picked her up and she was right underneath me and kicked home really hard. She’s a pretty tenacious filly.”
Leigh Court banked $75,000 in victory while improving her record to 5-2-0 from eight career starts.
She returned $5.80, $3.40 and $2.60, pairing with Overheard ($3.40, $2.50) for a $15.20 (5-6) exactor. A 5-6-3 (Spring in the Air, $2.20 to show) triactor was worth $40.90.
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