Windhaven Farms’ homebred Tiz Imaginary, with Luis Contreras up, drew off in mid-stretch to take the $150,000 Fanfreluche Stakes at Woodbine, one of two added-money features on Sunday.
The field for the 35th running of the six furlong stake over Polytrack for Ontario-bred two-year-old fillies was reduced to five after Marilyns Last Love was a morning scratch.
Sent postward the 9-2 fourth choice, despite impressively winning her debut on October 4, Tiz Imaginary, after breaking in front, tracked favoured Get Rhythm through fractions of :23.37 and :46.14. The pair turned for home as a team but Tiz Imaginary, a daughter of Tizway-Imaginary Gold, edged away at the sixteenth pole to register a handy two length score over a closing Holy Flame, while Get Rhythm faded to third, another length further back. The final time was 1:10.53.
“She broke well and was a couple (of lengths) in front right away,” said trainer Mike Doyle. “The idea was that she would follow somebody and I’m glad it worked out that way. She ran a helluva race. She seemed to improve from her last race.
“She’s very nice, very easy to train. She was in the sale in Florida and she got hurt. She had the joint fastest time at the two-year-old sale in April. We had to take her out. She had a little chip in her knee. It was a really simple little operation and she came back very well. If everything’s okay, we’ll run one more time, (in the) Glorious Song (November 21) or the Lassie (November 28).”
Doyle also had Crumlin Spirit in the stake, but she faded to fourth.
Tiz Imaginary returned $11.90, $5.30 and $2.70, combining with Holy Flame ($4.10, $2.40) for a $36 (5-2) exactor. A 5-2-4 (Get Rhythm, $2.30) triactor was worth $97.20.
The race is named for the 1981 Canadian Racing Hall of Fame inductee Fanfreluche, a Canadian-bred filly who was Canada’s Horse of the Year for 1970, in a campaign that saw her win numerous stakes, including the prestigious Grade 1 Alabama when ridden by Ron Turcotte for her owner-breeder Jean-Louis Levesque.
The daughter of Northern Dancer-Ciboulette also went on to become a sterling broodmare, her first foal being L’Enjoleur, Canada’s Horse of the Year in 1975, followed by multiple stakes winners and Sovereign Award winners Medaille d’Or and La Voyageuse.
Past winners of the Fanfreluche include Inglorious, who made her career debut in this stake in 2010 and came back the following year to win both the Woodbine Oaks and Queen’s Plate en route to divisional honours.
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