On Saturday at Woodbine, trainer Dale Desruisseaux and jockey Rafael Hernandez combined with PIPER’S GIFT to win the $125,000 Fury Stakes for owner and breeder Chiefswood Stable.
The next day, the same pair were in the winner’s circle after HIGHWAYTOTHEMOON upset the $125,000 Queenston Stakes for Dominic DiLalla’s Centennial Farms Niagara. Multiple stakes wins a week is nothing new for 2025 Outstanding Jockey Hernandez, but Desruisseaux has been on a fast rise in the last couple of years and it was a big weekend.
The Smithville, ON resident took out his trainer’s license in 2011, following early jobs that had little to do with racing, including running a pizza shop. He had a few horses, won a few races, owned several of them with his wife Jeanette and partners and began to attract owners.
In 2024, his stable won 11 races and $400,000 in purses. Last year, it won 24 races and well over $1 million.
Chiefswood, Centennial and Garland William’s Hillsbrook Farm have had a lot to do with that, as has one rare gem of a horse.
Piper’s Gift won two stakes for Desruisseaux and Chiefswood last year, including the prestigious Princess Elizabeth Stakes and she was a finalist for Champion two-year-old filly. The filly wintered in Florida at Palm Meadows and was given a try in the Memories of Silver Stakes at Aqueduct on April 26, but that return came on yielding grass and she slogged to the wire in fourth.
Back on her favourite surface, Tapeta, and adding Lasix for the first time for the seven-furlong Fury, Piper’s Gift was bet down as the favourite despite meeting up with the ’25 champ, Corsia Veloce, coming off an extended layoff. The predictable slow pace in the six-horse Fury field allowed Bossy Candy (Candy Ride (Arg) to lope along on a clear lead into the stretch, but Piper’s Gift tracked her all the way and got up to win by half a length just before the wire. The time of 1:23.21 was good for an 80 Beyer Figure, according to Daily Racing Form.
The Woodbine Oaks on July 19 will no doubt be up next for Piper’s Gift, daughter of Chiefswood’s Yorkton and from the mare Piper’s Legacy by Silent Name (Jpn). This is a loaded year for the Krembil family’s Chiefswood, as it has any number of Oaks and Plate hopefuls including the Oaks filly BOLD TIME, a recent winner with an 83 Beyer Figure.
While it appears the Fury Stakes will produce a couple of Oaks starters, The Queenston Stakes, also at seven furlongs, may not have much impact on the King’s Plate. Centennial’s HIGHWAYTOTHEMOON, a son of Canadian-bred graded stakes-winning sprinter Ransom the Moon, was given a shrewd ride by Hernandez and the bay gelding led all the way to win by 1 1/4 lengths in 1:23.35. Behind him was Gary Barber’s 4-to-5 chance Military Time.
Desruisseaux was pleasantly forthcoming after his second stakes win of the weekend, saying Highwaythemoon was not a Plate horse because of the 10-furlong distance. Bred by James, Janeane and Arika Everatt-Meeuse, Highwaytothemoon is from the mare High Society Gal by the Everatt’s stallion Society’s Chairman. High Society Gal never raced and her first foal is winner Teandhoneywithane.
Highwaytothemoon was bought back by the Everatts from the 2024 CTHS Ontario yearling sale for about $16,000.
More on Dale Desruisseaux here.
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