There are two stakes races this weekend at Woodbine, but the most intriguing race of the two days will be the seventh on Saturday, May 2 when Horse of the Year MANSETTI returns to the races. In fact, the seventh race, an allowance/optional claiming dash at seven furlongs, pits two King’s Plate winners, Mansetti and 2023 winner and fellow three-year-old champion PARAMOUNT PRINCE.
‘Pizza Boy’ (he is named after a pizza restaurant chain in the home state of owners Al and Bill Ulwelling), was voted Canadian Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old for 2025 and trainer Kevin Attard accepted the colt’s awards on April 23. The son of Collected – Gidget Girl by Sky Mesa won last year’s King’s Plate as well as the Grade 3 Marine Stakes and Woodstock Stakes, adding some $671,000 to his career earnings.
Mansetti had some R&R in Kentucky where he went through the ring at the January Horses of All Ages sale at Keeneland. The colt did not reach his reserve, however, and was bought back by the Ulwellings for $385,000. Attard has been bringing Mansetti back to racing fitness in Florida and Palm Meadows and sent the four-year-old out for two workouts over Woodbine’s Tapeta this month.
Pietro Moran rejoins Mansetti, who will return to the Lasix program on Saturday.
Paramount Prince is just $54,000 shy of $1 million in earnings and he also comes off a winter vacation. He was in Ocala until early March before returning to Woodbine. Mike Langlois and Gary Barber’s six-year-old gelding won one of six races in 2025 and two graded stakes in 2024. Fraser Aebly will ride.
The WHIMSICAL STAKES (G3) for fillies and mares at six furlongs has a collection of new faces to Woodbine. Multiple stakes winner MS. BUCCHERO, owned by Gary Barber, recently joined trainer Mark Casse’s team as she was bought for $230,000 from the Fasig-Tipton March Digital sale. The Bucchero mare has won 10 of 20 races including the Sugar Swirl Stakes in December at Gulfstream. Ms. Bucchero, who has never raced on Tapeta, is back on Lasix on Saturday and Ryan Munger will ride.
Attard has a pair of gals in the field including Lithe Spirit, winner of the Queen Stakes at Turfway Park on Mar. 14 and three-time winner American Women, recently bought for $100,000 by Anderson Farms and Kevin McKinley.
Mark Dodson paid $291,000 at the December Mares sale at Tattersalls in England and the Frankel (GB) mare had a booming workout time on Tapeta on April 27, zipping four furlongs in 47.60. Quadruple is trained by Josie Carroll and the five-year-old is out of multiple Group-winning sprinter Soffie (GB).
Trainer Kelsey Danner brought Brindi (Ire) up to Woodbine last spring and she won the Star Shoot Stakes and the filly is back this weekend. Reagan’s Flame tried Tapeta for the first time at Gulfstream on Mar. 7 and won by more than six lengths for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. Sahin Civaci is back in Ontario for the mount. Completing the field is the 2025 winningest horse at Woodbine, Maximum Fifty, who won six claiming dashes for Frank DiGiulio Jr.
SUNDAY’S feature at Woodbine is the $100,000 Thorncliffe Stakes headed by G T FIVE HUNDRED, recently purchased privately by Centennial Farms Niagara’s Dominic Dilalla. An earner of over $517,000, G T Five Hundred took his first stakes win in February when he won the Forego Stakes at Turfway.
SCORCHING, fourth in last year’s plate to Mansetti, returns from a lengthy layoff and is working quickly for trainer John Charalambous. DiGiulio’s two-time stakes winner Go Kart Mozart is in the field, as is Andy Stronach’s recent acquisition DREAMING OF KONA, who won the Tom Ridge Stakes on Tapeta at Presque Isle. The Thorncliffe is at 5 1/2 furlongs and is race 8 on Sunday.
More News
