Owner Tracy Farmer doled out a hefty $400,000 for Ontario-bred DANCING DUCHESS at the 2022 Keeneland September Sale, a price no doubt boosted by the fact that the filly’s older half-brother Safe Conduct had won the Queen’s Plate the previous year. Bred by small-scale breeder Mitch Kursner, Dancing Duchess (Munnings) picked up her second stakes victory in Saturday’s $112,000 Alywow Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on the turf, continuing trainer Mark Casse’s domination of the stakes races at Woodbine this year. The Casse team has won 10 of the 13 added-money races at the meeting.
If you have a good three-year-old Canadian-bred, the logical question for summer scheduling would centre on the Woodbine Oaks (July 20) or the King’s Plate (Aug. 17). However, Dancing Duchess is not currently nominated to the Oaks and Casse told Canadian Thoroughbred that the filly will be heading to Saratoga and the Coronation Cup at 5 1/2 furlongs next month.
Dancing Duchess, who won the Algonquin Stakes as a two-year-old, a 5-furlong dash on the inner turf, tried a one mile distance just once but that was in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes and she had a rough trip.
