The third and fourth days of the 2022 Woodbine Thoroughbred season, April 23 and 24, have better field size and more races than opening weekend and that is great news for bettors.
Saturday’s nine-race card includes the $50,000 Welcome Back Handicap, a starter handicap at 5 1/2 furlongs with some very quick guys in the 10-horse field.
Highweight at 124 pounds is the 10-year-old RECONFIGURE, the very interesting son of Lemon Drop Kid owned by Jim Ensoms’s 1569389 Ontario, Inc. and trained by Martin Drexler.
Reconfigure, bred in Kentucky by Patricia Moseley, was bought back from three sales as a weanling and yearling before he was bought by Team Equest for $150,000 at the Ocala Breders Select 2-year-old sale in 2014.
He debuted for trainer Eddie Plesa and Rustlewood Farm in Dec. 2014 and won a 7 1/2 furlong turf race at Gulfstream Park.
But Reconfigure did not race again for 1 1/2 years, reappearing in April 2016 at Gulfstream for Rustlewood and new trainer Mark Casse. He won a 1 1/16 miles turf race with an 88 Beyer Figure.
Incredibly, Reconfigure then disappeared for three years, 2016 to May 2019 when he popped up in a sprint at Woodbine for Casse, who now owned the gelding. He won again, this time with an 80 Beyer Figure. Casse dropped Reconfigure from that victory for optional $40,000 claiming to $25,000 claiming and two races later the horse was taken by owner and trainer Bob Tiller.
Tiller did very well with Reconfigure, winning three races with him and watching him miss by a head in the Grade 2 Nearctic Stakes. The horse made his way down to $20,000 claiming, however, in 2021 and was claimed by Ensom.
In three races for his current interests, Reconfigure has a win and two second-place finishes from his winter stint in Florida. his Beyer Figures of 88, 92 and 89 from those three outings make him tough in the Welcome Back. Kazushi Kimura, already four for nine at the meeting, has the mount.
The Welcome Back is race 6 on Saturday.
Sunday’s card is a bit more focused on the younger guns and race 4, the first leg of the Pick 4, is a $123,200 maiden allowance with a litany of lovely filly prospects.
CURLIN CANDY, the first foal of Horse of the Year Caren, raced twice as a juvenile and was second in the My Dear Stakes in her opener. She has been training in Florida this winter with trainer Mike DePaulo. Trainer Josie Carroll sends out the first-time starters LOYALTY (Hard Spun), a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint winner Shamrock Rose. This filly, owned by Gainesway Farm and LNJ Foxwoods, has had any number of impressive workouts. And Conrad Farm’s giant filly EVERYDAY MAGIC, by Tiznow, showed lots of promise last year in two races and she has been working fast for her return.
More from Canadian Thoroughbred:
