Woodbine Wrap: First Stakes Win For Shadow in Bison City

The plucky three-year-old Ontario-bred filly ME AND MY SHADOW broke through for her first stakes win on August 13 at Woodbine when she easily won the $250,000 Bison City Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Tiara for Canadian-bred fillies.

Made the favourite by bettors for the 1 1/16 mile race on Tapeta, D J Stable’s Me and My Shadow was coming off a solid fourth-place finish in the Woodbine Oaks on July 23 behind Elysian Field, Wickenheiser and Fortyfiveseventy. With the top two Oaks finishers heading to this weekend’s King’s Plate, the Bison City had a modest field of nine with just one stakes winner in the group, the speedy Fashionably Fab.

It was longshot Seattle Causeway who streaked to a clear lead early in the race, going easy fractions of :24.09 and 48.35, while Emma-Jayne Wilson settled Me and My Shadow into seventh spot in the early going. On the turn for home, a number of fillies made wide moves to get into contention with Me and My Shadow, trained by Mark Casse, making the quickest move to grab the lead in the stretch. The bay filly by Violence – Silhouette by Smart Strike quickly pulled clear to win by 3 1/2 lengths in 1:44.30. Tito’s Calling, a daughter of Society’s Chairman owned by Robert Narzili, was along for second, a neck in front of Fashionably Fab from Terra Racing.

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“Her acceleration through the turn was pretty epic,” said Wilson, who won her third Bison City (Free Fee Lady in 2010 and Brooklynsway in 2015 were the others). “When we straightened on and dug in some more, it was all over.”

A $185,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by American-based D J Stable, Me and My Shadow won her career debut on May 28, 2022 and then was second, third or fourth in her next six races. She was the runner-up in the Princess Elizabeth Stakes and Shady Well Stakes last year and third in the Fury this June before her Oaks run. The filly has two wins in eight races and her earnings now stand at $260,988.

The third leg of the Triple Tiara is the 10 furlong Wonder Where Stakes on turf on Sept. 10.

Bred by Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings and NETP, Me and My Shadow is the first foal of Silhouette, a three-time winner for Hill ‘n’ Dale and Glenn Sikura. Silhouette is out of Canadian champion Serenading, dam of stakes winner and sire Seattle Serenade.

Third dam, Daijin, was a two-time stakes winner and dam of Handpainted ($435,000) in addition to Serenading. This is the family of Passing Mood (4th dam), who produced Canadian Triple Crown winner With Approval and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Touch Gold.

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Notes on last week: Trainer MARTIN DREXLER won five races last week, four with the red-hot SAHIN CIVACI riding. Several of Drexler’s winners are horses coming off short layoffs and one of those, J P HELLISH, a five-year-old Florida-bred by J Ps Gusto, won his Woodbine debut by 11 lengths. Off since May, J P Hellish won the $25,000 claiming race with a 95 Beyer Speed Figure. It was the gelding’s ninth win in 44 races and he is owned by Mad Dog Racing Stable.

KEVIN ATTARD also won five races as he heads to the King’s Plate with a handful of starters. Both Attard and Drexler continue to chase leading trainer MARK CASSE who had four winners last week. Trainers MIKE DEPAULO and BILL THARRENOS had two winners.