Led across the finish line by Joey Gee Thoroughbreds’ homebred Speedy Soul, Mark Casse trainees swept the top three spots in the $125,000 Fury Stakes for Canadian-bred three-year-old fillies on Sunday at Woodbine Racetrack.
Hastalavistababy and supplemental entry Western Curl completed the Casse trifecta, which returned $99 for a $1 ticket.
Speedy Soul settled into stalking position along the rail as Silent Mistake wrestled the lead away from 8-5 favourite Intanga Rose through splits of :23.12 and :46.06. Turning for home, Western Curl rallied wide into contention with Speedy Soul splitting rivals at the top of the lane. The latter filly forged on to win in a final time of 1:22.39 with early trailer Hastalavistababy closing within three-quarters of a length at the finish while Western Curl edged out Intanga Rosa for third.
It was seven lengths back to Malibu Dawn chasing in fifth with Silent Mistake evening out to finish sixth and Artilena getting shuffled to the back.
“She broke sharp, I just sat in between them and when I asked her at the top of the lane, she gave me everything,” said jockey Patrick Husbands, who was aboard the Souper Speedy-Classic Soul filly in the seven-furlong feature for his first stakes victory since recovering from injury.
“Everything is good. I’m lucky and blessed,” said Husbands, who has recorded five wins from 21 starts so far this meet, including his return race on April 27. “After having this injury, everything has come back good, nothing is giving me no pain. And the opportunities that Mark give me with the trust he has in me for all these years, and the owners and the backing, I’m so happy and blessed to be back at Woodbine walking.”
Speedy Soul, previously trained by Andrew Smith, won the Muskoka Stakes to cap off a two-for-two juvenile campaign last year. With blinkers added, she entered the Fury off a sixth-place finish in her sophomore debut for Casse in the Star Shoot Stakes on opening weekend and paid $8.80 to win as the 3-1 second choice.
All seven fillies that competed in the Fury have been nominated to the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks Presented by Budweiser, slated for Saturday, June 8.
In other action, jockey Justin Stein was back in the irons at Woodbine for the first time since 2016 and finished fifth aboard Real Coal in the afternoon’s ninth race.
“Awesome (to be back). It was kind of surreal — a lot to take in and process, all the feelings and the emotions,” said the multiple graded stakes winning reinsman on the way back to the jock’s room. “I’m just processing the day. I thought I was never coming back, I thought that was it. It feels like back to normal, better than normal.”
This coming Friday’s 1:05 p.m. program will kick off the Victoria Day long weekend of live Thoroughbred racing at Woodbine.
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