It was a beautiful fall day at Woodbine on Thanksgiving Sunday, making it very easy to be thankful for being able to enjoy a great day of racing with amazing horses and horsepeople.
There was no shortage of longshots and drama through the 11 races – the stewards worked overtime through a number of inquiries and the 10th race was taken off the inner turf late in the day when riders expressed concern following days of rain.
The Grade 3 Durham Cup for older horses at 1 1/16 miles kicked off the trio of stakes events and while there were just five horses in the field, it resembled more of a game of bumper cars.
Reigning Horse of the Year Mighty Heart, 2019 Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston, Seagram Cup winner Tap It to Win, comebacker Halo Again and recent comebacker Special Forces made for an interesting race.
Tap it to Win set sail for the lead as he did in the Seagram with Halo Again moving up to push that one down the backstretch. Mighty Heart, under new rider Patrick Husbands, settled off the pace as Sir Winston had a cozy spot along the rail. Justin Stein on Special Forces, owned by Soli Mehta and partner and trained by Kevin Attard, watched the four up front. Into the stretch there were four in a line as Special Forces moved up wide. Sir Winston had to barge his way through, leaving Mighty Heart without a path. Halo Again came out and made things tight for Sir Winston and by then Special Forces had the race won.
Mighty Heart emerged from the race missing a shoe that had been ripped off a foot.
The time was 1:42.36. Claims of foul went up against Special Forces and there was a fairly lengthy study of the stretch run but finally, the result stood.
“This is the best handicap horses in Canada,” said Attard, who claimed Special Forces for $40,000 with Metha in 2018 from Gary Barber, John Oxley and trainer Mark Casse.
Special Forces, by Candy Ride (Arg) – Special Me by Unbridled’s Song – had a super 2019 for Attard, winning his first stakes race, the Grade 3 Autumn, and earning almost $200,000. But the chestnut 6-year-old was not seen against until August of this year.
“We had to be very patient with him. Obviously, the COVID season kind of hampered his chances of getting back last year, but we elected to kind of back off and give him the rest of the year off,” said Attard.
“This horse was probably one of the better older horses on the grounds here in 2019 and kind of got disrespected today… but showed his true colours.”
Bred by Machmer Hall, Carrie Brogden and Craig Brogden, Special Forces is now 6-6-2 from 20 starts for owners Soli Mehta and Partner. His earnings stand at just over $410,000.
He paid $15.60 for the win.
*The stewards had inquiries and issues at the gate for half the races on Sunday. One of those was the 85th running of the CUP & SAUCER STAKES, a prestigious Canadian-bred juvenile race on turf worth $251,200. The E P Taylor course, like the inner turf, had been taking in a lot of rain for the past couple of weeks and in fact, the Cup & Saucer was the only race to be run on the Taylor course in recent days.
Gary Barber’s homebred FAST FEET was made the 7-to-2 favourite in the big field as one of just five winners in the group. It was Fast Feet who set the pace over the soggy grass through an opening quarter of :25:53, as Mentoring kept close tabs on the leader, with Dancin in Da’nile following in third. Another Barber baby, God of Love, co-owned by Eclipse Thoroughbreds and trained by Mark Casse, was well back in the pack, sitting in ninth under Rafael Hernandez.
Fast Feet continued to set the pace, still operating on a half-length lead over Mentoring through a half in :50.44, as God of Love was still well back in eighth spot.
Heading into the final turn, Fast Feet began to pick up the pace and attempted to draw away from his pursuers. God of Love, ninth at Robert Geller’s three-quarters call, still had plenty of work ahead of him.
After methodically picking off his rivals one-by-one, God of Love advanced late on the turn, bumped Hidden Honor hard as he forged past, and went on to overhaul his mate Fast Feet to win by 1 ¾-length despite a late bobble in a time of 1:47.86 for 1 1/16 miles.
Following an inquiry into God of Love’s bump, the results stood.
Stronger Together finished one length behind Fast Feet for third and Dancin in Da’Nile took fourth.
“I tried to get the times, tried to get closer, because I know the turf is soft and we didn’t want to be stuck behind too many horses, but he refused to go early,” said Hernandez. “He said, ‘Nah.’ He was staying back, so I said we will try to make it in one run. I put him in gear, and he gave one run, and he came flying down the lane.”
The chestnut colt by Cupid – No Wonder by Three Wonders was just 7-to-1 after a debut outing in a Tapeta sprint that saw him break slowly and finish seventh in a key race. Bred by the late Bill Graham, God of Love was a $77,000 weanling purchase by One More Time Thoroughbreds at the 2019 Keeneland November sale.
He was then sold for just $9,000 as a yearling last year’s Keeneland September Sale and then bought by Casse and co. for $100,000 at this year’s March juvenile sale in Ocala.
This is the first impressive corp of foals for Cupid, a son of Tapit who won the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita and the Grade 2 Rebel, among other races. He stands for $5,000 at Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
NO WONDER is quite a story. She has been through seven sales in her life and raced mostly at Turf Paradise in 2008-2011, winning her maiden for $8,000 claiming and ending her career with a win for $3,000 claiming. She would later have a half-sister, Wemissfrankie, who won the Grade 1 Oak Leaf and Del Mar Debutante in 2011.
Graham bought No Wonder in foal to Into Mischief for $53,000 at the 2016 Fasig Tipton February Mixed Sale. That foal, the late Muskoka Wonder, won the Clarendon Stakes at Woodbine in 2018 for Conrad Farm and Casse.
The next foal for the mare, Ri N Ginger, was a $10,000 short yearling purchase by Francine Villeneuve who later bought her back from the CTHS Ontario sale for $40,000. Ri N Ginger is racing at Fort Erie for low claiming.
In 2019, No Wonder was sold for $25,000 by the estate of Graham to Ontario bloodstock agent Richard Hogan in foal to Good Samaritan.
This year she had a foal by Where’s the Ring and was bred to Ami’s Holiday.
The main theme of racing last week at Woodbine was the domination of the horses from the Mark Casse barn run by David Adams and Kathyrn Sullivan. They sent out the win-shy ART OF ALMOST to upset the Grade 3 Ontario Matron on Sunday for D J Stable and had nine winners in four racing days from 32 Woodbine starters. In the last four days, Casse won 12 races from 43 starters.
~ with files from Woodbine Communications
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