The Canada Day stakes extravaganza at Woodbine on Saturday begins with race 5, the Grade 3 Marine Stakes for three-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta. The Marine is an open race but has been an excellent leg-up for Canadian-breds who continue on to the Plate Trial and King’s Plate.
Also on the Canada Day card is the Selene Stakes (G3) for three-year-old fillies and there are a few Woodbine Oaks (July 23) candidates in the field.
The Marine was inaugurated in 1956 at Greenwood racetrack and among the horses who won the race and later the Plate are Shaman Ghost, Strait of Dover, Wando, Victor Cooley, Alydeed, With Approval and Key to the Moon. Rafael Hernandez has ridden four Marine winners, including the last three.
Two solid King’s Plate contenders, TWIN CITY (Klimt) and KAUKOKAIPUU (Mr. Speaker) are in the Marine; four others are on the Plate fringes and two Marine starters are strong US-breds including Turf King (Ire) from the Chad Brown barn.
Twin City and Kaukokaipuu both broke through for their first stakes wins at the distance of seven furlongs last out and will be looking to use the Marine as a final stepping-stone to the King’s Plate.
The Plate Trial, a 1 1/8-mile race for Canadian-bred three-year-olds, will be run July 23, but trainers Stuart Simon and Ted Holder plan to bring their respective charges into the King’s Plate off a seven-week break.
Twin City had plenty of experience around two turns last year, graduating in his second start going long and then finishing a strong second in the 1 1/8-mile Coronation Futurity.
Following a winter in Ocala, Twin City returned to action here in the open King Corrie Stakes and prevailed by a scant nose under regular rider Gary Boulanger.
“He came back in March,” said Simon, who also owns Twin City in partnership with Brent, Russ, and Roy McLellan. “He’s a big horse, and he’s always been mentally mature and that’s the good part about him. In the Coronation, he was going good at the end. Distance isn’t an issue.”
Kaukokaipuu, conditioned by Holder for Culpepper Island Syndicate, failed to find the range in seven starts at two, but did finish second on five occasions and opened up his sophomore campaign with another runner-up effort. His two starts since then have been impeccable, however, as Kaukokaipuu won his maiden in lengthy fashion and then was a smart winner of the Queenston while giving Holder his first career stakes score.
The Marine represents a change in plans for Kaukokaipuu, who was supplemented at a cost of $2,250.
“I was going to go to the Plate Trial, but with this horse as good as he is I decided not to wait,” said Holder, who also had Kaukokaipuu in Florida with a long-term eye toward to the King’s Plate.
“Off his last work, I don’t think the distance will be a problem. It was something special.”
With his new regular partner Rico Walcott aboard, Kaukokaipuu breezed six furlongs last Sunday in 1:12.40.
Velocitor, the Coronation Futurity winner, will be looking to rebound off a seventh-place King Corrie finish and has been gelded since that race. Other King’s Plate nominees, Stayhonor Goodside, One Bay Hemingway and Simcoe, are also looking to polish their credentials.
-with files from Woodbine media
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