It appears that this season as a 4-year-old SHIFTY (Medaglia d’Oro) has found her jam.
Often a bridesmaid, Shifty won her third straight race on Saturday and it was her first graded stakes win. At 4 to 1, Shifty, owned by D.J. Stable and trained by Mark Casse, darted away from a good field to win the 7 1/2 furlong Royal North Stakes (G3) on the grass. Ridden by Rafael Hernandez, the bay daughter of Medaglia d’Oro simply tracked her stablemate Without Cause and then took over into the stretch, holding off the shipper Fantastical to win by three-quarters of a length.
Her time of 1:29.08 was good for a career best 93 Beyer Speed Figure according to Daily Racing Form.
It was the fifth career win for Shifty from 15 races and second stakes win. Shifty, bred in Ontario by David Anderson’s Anderson Farms, Ont. Inc. won her 2025 debut in a sprint race on Tapeta before tackling the top fillies of the year. She was second in the Woodbine Oaks and Bison City Stakes and third in the Fury and Wonder Where, each time as the public’s choice.
Now the filly seems to have put aside her underachieving status with two sprint wins to start her local campaign and the Royal North win,
Purchased for $350,000 at the Fasig-Tipton 2023 fall yearling sale, Shifty is from the Elusive Quality mare Elusive Luci, who was a winner once in five races and a half sister to Grade 1 Matriarch winner Stormy Lucy.
Elusive Luci has had five foals to race including Big Runneur, winner of the Grade 2 Eddie S Stakes.
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