Grade 1 winners Lea and Obviously, along with recent Grade 2 winner Grand Arch headline what promises to be a hotly-contested renewal of the Grade 1, $1 million Ricoh Woodbine Mile Sunday at Woodbine.
The 19th edition of one of the premier grass races in North America, which has attracted 11 hopefuls, will be televised live across Canada on TSN2 in HD in a special presentation from 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. ET while FOX Sports 1 will provide coverage to the United States from 4:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m. as well. Post time is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. The winner will receive $600,000 while the runner-up gets $200,000.
For the eighth consecutive year, the Ricoh Woodbine Mile is part of the Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ series and offers the winner an all-expenses paid berth (entry fees and travel costs) into the Breeders’ Cup Mile, October 31 at Keeneland in Kentucky. It’s also the fifth year of race title sponsorship by Ricoh.
Post positions were drawn Thursday at Woodbine with Toronto Maple Leafs captain and defenceman Dion Phaneuf as guest drawmaster.
Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) is also launching ‘WEG Cares Week’, which will highlight 17 of WEG’s longtime charitable and community partners in a campaign to promote awareness and support for the various organizations and their causes.
Adele B. Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm’s homebred Lea (PP10, 5-2), trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and ridden by Joel Rosario, enters as the field’s leading money winner with over $2 million, with seven wins from only 17 starts and is the 5-2 morning line choice. The six-year-old Kentucky-bred son of First Samurai won the Grade 1 Donn Handicap in February of 2014. This year, he took the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope, was runner-up in the Donn, finished third to Prince Bishop and California Chrome in the $10 million Dubai World Cup and was second to Noble Bird in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster.
After a disappointing sixth to Honor Code in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga on August 8, Lea will now race on turf for the first time in over two years. However, he broke his maiden on the grass in 2012 at Saratoga, won a Grade 3 stake later than year on turf and the following season finished second and third to champion Wise Dan in the turf Firecracker and Fourstardave.
“He kind of ran up close to a fast pace. I don’t think that helped,” recalled Mott, about the Whitney. “By the same token, I don’t think he handled the ground that well. I’m giving him that excuse.”
Since then, Lea has worked four times, including two good blowouts over the Saratoga training turf. “We were pleased enough with the way he worked on it (turf) that we thought he deserved another chance. Well, it’s (Ricoh Woodbine Mile) a million dollar race. You’re going to run into good horses, if you’re trying to prove your horse and we know he’s a Grade 1 horse.”
Mott won the inaugural Woodbine Mile in 1997 with Geri and also just missed winning the 2011 edition with Courageous Cat when second by a neck to Turallure. Six-year-olds have won this race a leading seven times.
Dual Grade 1 winner and second choice Obviously (PP1, 3-1), trained by Phil D’Amato for owners Anthony Fanticola and Joseph Scardino, makes his seasonal debut in the Ricoh Woodbine Mile, the first horse to do so in the race’s history. The speedy seven-year-old Irish-bred gelded son of Choisir, who would become the oldest horse to win the race, has earned over $1.4 million while taking 11 of 22 starts, highlighted by back-to-back victories in the Shoemaker Mile in 2013 and 2014. To be ridden by Joe Talamo, Obviously also finished fifth in the last two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
“He loves to run four or five races a year and just gives you everything he’s got,” said D’Amato. “He runs great fresh and if he wasn’t training as well as he ever has, if not better, I wouldn’t even consider this off the bench. But he is training like a horse possessed so we’re going to take a shot in a $1-million race and a chance at a ‘Win and You’re In’.”
Jim and Susan Hill’s Grand Arch (PP2, 6-1), trained by Brian Lynch, comes into the Mile off a tremendous neck win in the Grade 2, one mile Fourstardave at Saratoga, when recording a career best 102 Beyer Speed figure. The horse he beat that day, Ironicus, came back to capture the Bernard Baruch at Saratoga on Monday.
“That performance sums him up,” said Lynch. “He’s going to fight every inch of the way, and that’s precisely what he did that day. This guy just keeps getting better with age.”
Last year, Grand Arch won the King Edward at Woodbine and was the 7-2 second choice in the Ricoh Woodbine Mile when finishing fifth to Trade Storm. The six-year-old Kentucky-bred gelded son of Arch boasts career earnings of just over $1 million and will be ridden by Luis Saez.
There’s also a European invasion in the form of Mondialiste and Mr. Owen. Mondialiste (PP7, 9-2), owned by Geoff and Sandra Turnbull and trained by David O’Meara, has won three of 12 career starts while campaigning in France and England. The Irish-bred five-year-old son of champion Galileo, to be ridden by Fergal Lynch, has won his last two, including the Strensall Stakes at York, a race which Trade Storm used as a stepping stone to his Woodbine Mile win last year.
Mr. Owen (PP8, 8-1) is owned by Qatar Racing, who won last year’s Ricoh Woodbine Mile with Trade Storm. A Pennsylvania-bred, Mr. Owen, a son of Invincible Spirit-Mrs. Lindsay, is trained by Francois Rohaut, will be ridden by Umberto Rispoli and has competed only in France, winning three of six starts this year after being unraced at two.
The only three-year-old in the race (no three-year-old has ever won the Mile), Mr. Owen enters off a minor stake win at Deauville but earlier in the year was third to Make Believe and New Bay in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains over one mile at Longchamp. His dam, Mrs. Lindsay, earned over $1 million and won two Grade 1’s – the Prix Vermeille at Longchamp and the E.P. Taylor at Woodbine in 2007.
Tower of Texas (PP6, 12-1), trained by Hall of Famer Roger Attfield, has won three of his five outings this year, including the Grade 2 King Edward on June 21. The four-year-old son of Street Sense, owned by Thomas Van Meter II and Scott Dilworth, enters off a runner-up finish in the August 23, seven furlong Play the King and will be ridden by Eurico Rosa da Silva. Attfield is seeking his first Mile win.
Tower of Texas is one of three Canadian (Ontario)-breds in the race, along with Kaigun and Platinum Glory. Four Canadian-breds have won before, the latest being Rahy’s Attorney in 2008. The others were Quiet Resolve (1999), Numerous Times (2001) and Soaring Free, who was also the post time choice in 2004.
Copper Water Thoroughbred Company’s Reporting Star (PP11, 15-1) pulled off a shocker in the Play the King, finishing a nose in front of Tower of Texas, at 15-1 in the turf prep for the Ricoh Woodbine Mile. A winner of five in 22 outings, the five-year-old Florida-bred gelded son of Circular Quay also finished third in last year’s Grade 1 Northern Dancer and second in the Grade 2 Sky Classic. Luis Contreras has the mount for trainer Jim Ensom.
Kaigun (PP9, 20-1), a five-year-old Ontario-bred gelded son of Northern Afleet owned by Gary Barber (who co-owned 2006 Mile winner Becrux), Quintessential Racing Florida and Horse’n Around Racing Stable, had a busy 2014 campaign, finishing second to Wise Dan in the Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland, coming close to winning three other Grade 1’s before taking the Grade 2 Play the King Stakes. He subsequently went postward in the Ricoh Woodbine Mile as the third choice and finished second, a half-length behind winner Trade Storm.
To be ridden once again by Patrick Husbands, who won the 2001 Mile aboard Numerous Times, Kaigun, a Mark Casse trainee who has earned just over $1 million, is winless in three starts this year but is rounding into form, most recently finishing third to Mile rivals Reporting Star and Tower of Texas in the Play the King.
Casse’s other hopeful is Live Oak Plantation’s Za Approval (PP4, 20-1), a seven-year-old gelded son of Ghostzapper who finished second to Wise Dan in both the 2013 Ricoh Woodbine Mile and Breeders’ Cup Mile. David Moran has been named to ride Za Approval, a multiple Grade 3 winner, has earned over $1.3 million while taking eight of 31 outings.
Ontario-bred Platinum Glory (PP3, 30-1), owned by John Di Scola, is a one-time winner in nine starts and most recently was fifth to Reporting Star in the Play the King. However, in June the four-year-old son of Dunkirk finished second to Tower of Texas in the King Edward at a flat mile. The grey colt is trained by Mike DePaulo and will be ridden by Jesse Campbell.
Irish Wisky Racing’s Turncoat (PP5, 30-1), trained by Laurie Silvera, has won four of 16 career starts but will be making his stakes debut in the Ricoh Woodbine Mile, with Omar Moreno named to ride the five-year-old Kentucky-bred gelded son of Notional.
The stakes record time for the Woodbine Mile is 1:31.75, set by the recently-retired, two-time U.S. Horse of the Year Wise Dan in 2013, eclipsing the former mark of 1:32.04 by Ventura in 2009 when she became the first and only filly/mare to win the race. Quiet Resolve ($91.10 in 1999) is the longest-priced winner while Wise Dan is the shortest-priced winner ($2.50 in 2013). Leroidesanimaux established the largest margin of victory, seven and three-quarter lengths, in 2005.
Five favourites have won the Mile in its first 18 editions – Soaring Free in 2004, Leroidesanimaux in 2005, Shakespeare in 2007 and Wise Dan in 2012 and 2013.
Four horses which raced in the Woodbine Mile have won the Breeders’ Cup Mile. However, Wise Dan is the only one to win both Grade 1 races in the same year – and he did it twice – in 2012 and 2013. The others are 2007 Woodbine runner-up Kip Deville and 1999 fifth place finisher Silic, who both went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Mile the same year. Court Vision, who won the 2010 Woodbine Mile, captured the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Four other Woodbine Mile winners – Geri (1997), Touch of the Blues (2003), Leroidesanimaux (2005) and Turallure (2011) went on to finish second in the Breeders’ Cup Mile the same year.
The Ricoh Woodbine Mile caps an incredible weekend of four Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ stakes, all contested on the world-famous E.P. Taylor Turf Course. Earlier on Sunday, at 5:12 p.m., the Grade 2 $300,000 Canadian Stakes, also televised live, has attracted 11 fillies and mares for the mile and one-eighth contest, headed by Strut the Course, Hoop of Colour, Overheard and Uchenna.
Also on Sunday’s card, although not a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In race, the Grade 1 $300,000 Northern Dancer, at one and one-half miles on the turf for three-year-olds and upward at 3:32 p.m., drew nine hopefuls, including recent Breeders’ Stakes winner Danish Dynaformer.
Saturday’s card at Woodbine features two Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In races for two-year-olds – the $200,000 Natalma Stakes for fillies and the $200,000 Summer Stakes, both at one mile.
Post time for the first of 11 races on Sunday is 1:00 pm. A Rock ‘N’ Racing party begins at 12 noon, when a special party zone will be set-up in the East End Grandstand with bands, food trucks and various activities.
Sunday’s card also offers two outstanding Pick 4 guaranteed pools – $300,000 in the early one (Races 4-7) and $500,000 in the late one (Races 8-11, including the Ricoh Woodbine Mile, the 10th race on the program).
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