Woodbine Sunday: Treason in Eclipse, Rockcrest Takes Pink Lloyd

Josie Carroll is in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame for a reason.

On June 4 at Woodbine, Carroll had TREASON (Constitution – Cougarstown by Speightstown) primed and ready for the Grade 3 Eclipse Stakes despite not having raced since last November. The five-year-old bay gelding, owned by LNJ Foxwoods and MSK Racing Ventures, had shown promise in the summer of 2021 when he won his career debut on the grass for trainer Bill Mott. The horse missed a year of racing, however after his fourth race.

Treason joined Carroll last summer and won an optional claiming/allowance race by 16 1/2 lengths with a whopping 101 Beyer Speed Figure. He tried his first stakes race in the Autumn (G2) and finished fourth.

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In the Eclipse, Treason was 6-to-1 as invader Wolfie’s Dynaghost was heavily bet down to 4-to-5 as fans seemed to love the horse and visiting rider John Velazquez.

Early in the race it appeared Wolfie’s Dynaghost was going along well, dueling two-wide with War Bomber through pace fractions of 24.80 and 48.74. Treason and jockey Kazushi Kimura stalked the pace while three wide and got the jump on his rivals late on the turn. Once clear, the gelding fended off Carrothers, who was ducking in during the chase and had to settle for second.

The time for the 1 1/16 miles on a Tapeta surface that was yielding slow times was 1:43.09.

“When people ask you about what makes you successful with horses, I say patient owners, owners that give you the opportunity to let their horses develop and do what they can do,” said Carroll. “I knew that this horse had a little bit higher cruising speed than my other horse [Tyson], but they were both going to be right there. Treason is just a good horse. We thought he was a good horse from the beginning, and he really proved himself today.”

Bred in Kentucky by Ramspring Farm, it was the first stakes win for Treason ($14.60), now 3-0-0 from seven starts.

Treason is from the stakes-winning mare Cougarstown who has produced six other named foals including stakes winner Elevenses.

Third dam Skipping Beats is the dam of stakes winner Fair Apache ($328,000).

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ROCKCREST (Old Forester – Saint Judy by Mineshaft) has developed into a top-notch sprinter for owner and trainer Nigel Burke and the grey Ontario-bred and sired gelding showed it in the first running of the $100,000 Pink Lloyd Stakes on Sunday.

Rockcrest, who does his best running when he is loose on the lead, took advantage of a couple of unfortunate incidents that occurred to two other pace runners before the race got underway. Maakwa refused to go into the gate and was scratched by the starter. At the break, the undefeated Reloads Rascal hopped up at the start and lost several lengths.

That left Keveh Nicholls all alone on the lead on Rockcrest and the pair galloped home to win in 109.68 over a fast-closing Candy Overload.

Horses bred by Northern Dawn’s Sherry McLean finished 1-2.

Burke bought Rockcrest for $17,000 from the 2018 CTHS yearling sale. The six-year-old is one of six named foals to Saint Judy who was bought by McLean for just $2,000. The mare’s first foal was winner White Wedding, followed by winners Tragically Quewick (4187K) and Invisible Friend. The mare has a placed three-year-old this year, Miss Waterloo, and a two-year-old full brother to Rockcrest who is working now, Chasing Bourbon.

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Also on Sunday trainer KATERINA VASSILIEVA won two races – the first and the last. The first was won by Lady Maeve, who took a turf claiming race with ease. In the finale, Vassilieva sent out 12-to-1 SIMCOE (Uncle Mo) to win an allowance race and put himself into the King’s Plate picture. Simcoe is a homebred for Chiefswood Stable and Rafael Hernandez gave the dark bay gelding a super ride.

The four-day week of racing at Woodbine ended with PATRICK HUSBANDS winning five races and two graded stakes races. Bev Chubb won two races on Thursday and Barbara Minshall won a pair. Minshall sent out the first-time starting two-year-old colt TRIPLE TREA (tray), named for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ baseball player Trea Turner. A son of Bolt d’Oro, Triple Trea came from way off the pace to win the 5 1/2 furlng dash under Emma-Jayne Wilson for Legion Bloodstock.