You could forgive Brandon Greer and his father Terry for looking a little shell-shocked as a microphone was thrust towards them after their big Ontario-bred gelding TOWN CRUISE upset the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile on Saturday. Not to say the Greers did not have faith in their big chestnut 6-year-old in the $1,200,800 Mile, a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) and a premier mile, turf race on the North American racing calendar.
Town Cruise (Town Prize – Candy Cruise by Candy Ride (Arg) had earned a spot in the 10-horse Mile field since the speedy chestnut had just finished second in the Grade 2 King Edward, his first stakes attempt, to Gary Barber’s Olympic Runner, one of three Mark Casse trainees in the Mile. And trainer Brandon Greer, like his father and grandfather Reg before him, was well known as a very good horseman who had done well with a small stable over the years.
But the field did have some much more experienced, graded stakes stars in the field such as Juddmonte Farms’ SET PIECE, trained by Brad Cox, the Chad Brown-trained Raging Bull plus champion Avie’s Flatter and the ex-Brit Space Traveller.
Everyone knew Town Cruise would go the lead under his jockey Daisuke Fukumoto, as the horse has done in most of his previous 13 races.
And that is exactly how things transpired on Mile day, which also featured the Grade 1 Pattison Canadian International, placed on the Mile card for the first time and held a month earlier than usual.
Fukumoto had Town Cruise in control, 24.08 and 47.10 for the first two and four furlongs. European gelding Duke of Hazard, winless in a couple of seasons, tracked a bit, with the mare Change of Control, who was stretching out to a route distance after success in some turf sprints, several lengths back in third. Meanwhile, odds-on Set Piece, a Grade 2 winner who was recently second in the Grade 1 Fourstardave to Got Stormy, trailed, as is his style. And rival jockeys between Town Cruise and Set Piece kept their mounts in reserve.
The pace was so slow on the good surface that Ivan Dalos’ AVIE’S FLATTER, so eager to go a bit faster than the slow pace fractions, threw his head half a dozen times, fighting jockey Luis Contreras while stalking in fourth.
The field began to quicken behind Town Cruise around the turn and into the stretch as Fukumoto tapped Town Cruise as the pair hugged the rail. Behind them it was a bit of a comedy watching the good milers scramble to try and catch up. Set Piece tried to rally between horses but was bumped around. March to the Arch, second in the 2020 Mile, was blocked by a wall of horses. Olympic Runner was making a bid between horses but was shut off and Raging Bull and Ride a Comet were putting in wide rallies.
But the race was over. Town Cruise kept going and won by 2 1/4 lengths while Space Traveller finished well for second for Clipper Logistics and Woodbine rider David Moran. Raging Bull with Frankie Dettori on board was third. The final time was 1:35.14.
The Woodbine Mile is a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1), this year to be held at Del Mar but as Town Prize is not Breeders’ Cup eligible, and the Greers are not wild about racing their horse on a tight, two-turn turf course in California, he won’t be going.
WAGERING on the day was $13.8 million, up from $11.8 million a year ago.
Terry and Brandon Greer with their homebred gelding Town Cruise – Santino DiPaola photo
As an Ontario-sired and bred gelding, the Greers, from Mansfield, Ontario, collected a life-changing $720,000 for the win. Since 2004 when Brandon began training a small stable, his best previous year had been a season with $184,000 in earnings (2007) from three wins by 26 starters. Brandon was a 30% career trainer, however, coming into the Mile. Racing one to three horses at most each year, Greer had stakes placings with Forestador, Fintona and Megavella, all Ontario-breds.
Town Cruise won his debut in 2018 and won two more optional allowance races in 2019. But last year the gelding raced just three times and earned $10,000.
But the maturing gelding reeled off two straight wins to begin 2021, posting career best Beyer Figures of 94 each time, leading up to his King Edward win.
In a story by Chris Lomon for Woodbine a few weeks ago, Greer said about the possibility of starting Town Cruise in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile:
“Well, it’s not something a guy like me should be thinking about it, but this guy is making me do it,” said Brandon. “The answer will come. We did end up nominating him for the Mile. We’re going until we’re not going. It’s very easy to win a race when there are no other horses in it. Once the nominations come out and we see all the terrifying names that might smarten us up a little.
“Asking the horse right now doesn’t help because he’s saying, ‘Let’s go.’ He doesn’t know the field that he’d face. I’m not afraid of going in such a big race. What I am afraid of is putting a horse in a spot where that courage and guts of his gets overwhelmed. The last thing I want to do is break his heart, even if it’s the chance for something big.”
Following the Mile win, Greer said, “It feels a little surreal at the moment, but I’m absolutely thrilled with him. This horse is amazing. I absolutely love him.
“I could see him digging in, that’s something that he’s been able to do very well this year,” he continued. “Dig in the late stages, even though he’s been in the front. I found it a little difficult to believe right until the final 16th and then I can see the other horses just didn’t have enough to catch up there.”
Terry Greer purchased CANDY CRUISE as a yearling in 2007 at the CTHS Ontario sale for $4,500 from Box Arrow Farm. The previous year Gail Wood’s Woodlands sold the filly as a weanling for breeders Jim and Alice Sapara for $6,000 to Box Arrow, owned by Shirley Prosser.
Candy Cruise raced 12 times and did not place, earning just over $5,000 on the track. But she had a bit of pedigree buff – her second dam produced multiple graded stakes winning sprinter Mazel Trick and Grade 1 winning juvenile Wild Escapade.
The Greers bred the mare to Showing Up and the foal, a filly named Show Me the Candy, had two workouts and then was retired. In 2013 she produced another filly by Showing up, Georgia Sweet, who was placed six times in 17 races.
The Greers bred Candy Cruise to Bill Sorokolit’s new stallion at the time, TOWN PRIZE, a fast, stakes-winning son of Speightstown who won the 2012 Woodstock Stakes. Town Cruise was the result, a member of the stallion’s first small crop.
Candy Cruise then had a Society’s Chairman filly in 2017, Seriously Sweet, who had a few workouts this spring. She has a 2018 Frac Daddy filly, Blueberry Fields. She did not get in foal to Seattle Serenade last year.
TOWN PRIZE, who now stands at Chris and Mike Blake’s Ascot Stud near Port Colborne after beginning this season at Curraghmore Farm for a private fee, has about a dozen horses of racing age. His daughter Artful Ballerina won the restricted Georgian Bay Stakes this summer.
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