The $100,000 Ballade Stakes kicks off this weekend’s racing at Woodbine and the 6 furlong dash for Ontario-sired fillies and mares marks the return of the 2022 Ballade winner and 2020 Champion Canadian Female Sprinter ARTIE’S PRINCESS. The Ontario-bred daughter of the late We Miss Artie is listed as the even-money favourite for Ken Ramsey and the estate of Sarah Ramsey and trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr.
Artie’s Princess comes with an interesting background. She also is making her first start since a long turf experiment in January at Gulfstream that did not go well. The bay mare, now six years old, was working along in March and April in Florida but then was off the worksheet until she arrived at Woodbine in May. Joseph has some horses stabled at Woodbine but he is 0 for 3 currently.
But Artie’s Princess is a gem with 7 wins in 14 races, $563,125 in earnings and six wins at Woodbine alone.
A multiple graded stakes winner, she won last year’s Ballade in a hand ride from jockey Patrick Husbands, who rides again this Saturday.
Last September, Artie’s Princess set a track record in her win in the Grade 2 Presque Isle Master Stakes at Presque Isle, but came up with a positive test for Gabapentin. The ruling to disqualify her from the win was appealed and since then, there has been no news.
On June 16, Artie’s Princess worked 4 furlongs in a sizzling 46.40.
The main danger to Artie is PLEASURE’S GOLD, whose half-sister Golden Vision won the 2021 Ballade. Pleasure’s Gold was in an optional claiming race to begin her 2023 campaign and she won by 7 1/2 lengths, putting up a career best 85 Beyer Figure, according to Daily Racing Form. Pleasure’s Gold is a homebred for Gordon and Elizabeth Lickrish and she is trained by Tino Attard.
Sunday’s Alywow Stakes is a doozy
Grade 1 winner LAST CALL returns to the turf for Sunday’s 6 ½-furlong Alywow Stakes at Woodbine, but the Kevin Attard trainee will need to have her running shoes on against a tough field.
Nine three-year-old fillies including Last Call, last year’s upset winner of the Natalma (G1T), a Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ event, will take to the E.P. Taylor Turf Course in the $100,000 Alywow.
Owned by X-Men Racing 2 LLC and SF Racing LLC, Last Call is a daughter of English Channel-Over Served, and she heads into her latest test off a second in the Ruling Angel Stakes, a seven-furlong Tapeta race run on May 20 at Woodbine.
“It was good to get her three-year-old season underway with the second in the Ruling Angel and now we’ll get her back on the turf,” said Attard, who is closing in on 700 career wins. “She’s been working well and we’re hoping she can get it done on Sunday.”
The filly who won the Ruling Angel Stakes, RYDER RYDER RYDER, romped by seven lengths that day and makes her grass debut for Live Oak Plantation and trainer Mark Casse. Ryder Ryder Ryder, by good turf sire Quality Road, has three grass-winning siblings including her full brother Hootenanny, winner of the Grade 1 Breeder’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
The Chad Brown-trained UP AND DOWN, a half-sister to multiple Grade 2 turf stakes winner Fluffy Socks, comes in off a troubled fourth-place finish in the Hilltop Stakes at Pimlico on May 19.
SECRET MONEY will make her first start outside of the U.S. for owners Fortune Farm LLC (Richard Nicolai), Robert Hahn and Matthew Hand.
The daughter of Good Samaritan-Awesome Humor comes into the Alywow riding a two-race win streak, her latest victory coming in a 5 ½-furlong turf race at Churchill Downs on May 23. One month earlier, the bay filly broke her maiden courtesy of a half-length score at Keeneland over the same ground and distance.
Secret Money debuted on April 2 at Gulfstream where she rallied to finish fourth at five panels on the turf.
“I thought she ran well enough,” said Walsh of her debut. “She won well in her next start at Keeneland, and she’s moved forward ever since. I thought the last one [Churchill] was very impressive because she took on winners and older fillies. I thought that was a big test for her and she came through with flying colours. She’s a nice, hard-knocking filly. She’s tough. She’s not overly big but she tries hard. She has a lot of admirable qualities.”
Now she’ll test out her fourth different turf course in as many starts.
“She’s very adaptable, an easy filly to be around, so it shouldn’t bother her shipping up there. It’s a very good track at Woodbine. I always like to run horses there. It’s a lovely track and it’s very fair.”
Bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm, LLC, Secret Money will be ridden by Jareth Loveberry.
The Alywow is named for the talented turf performer who was Canada’s Horse of the Year in 1994 for owner Kinghaven Farms and trainer Roger Attfield. Alywow was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2009.
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