Seven-year-old stakes champ Infinite Patience is seeking her third consecutive Distaff title on Monday’s BC Cup Day at Hastings Racecourse.

The BC Cup Distaff is one of six stakes on the eight-race holiday card. Other stakes include the BC Cup Nursery, the BC Cup Debutante, the Sir Winston Churchill, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and the BC Cup Classic. Each stakes race carries a $50,000 purse.

Infinite Patience is trained by Barbara Heads for owners William DeCoursey and R.N.H. Stable. The veteran stakes winner will be ridden by Antonio Ambrosio Reyes and meet some familiar faces in the Distaff including Matsqui who bested Infinite Patience in the Monashee Handicap on July 1.

Heads acknowledged the mare’s fitness has been the priority heading into the BC Cup Distaff, which is run at a mile and a sixteenth over Hasting’s dirt course.

“She’s kind of had to run herself into fitness. Our race meet is not really long and has limited stakes races, so she had to use a couple of races just as a workout, which is kind of unfortunate, but it is what it is.”

Heads added, “She had a really good breeze on the weekend, so I’m a lot more confident with her, because we have to train her a little bit different now and it’s a bit harder to get her fit,” said Heads.

Posting her final four-furlong breeze on July 27, her conditioner feels Infinite Patience is ready to give her best in the Distaff, which is the fifth race on Monday afternoon’s card.

“I’m way more confident – I’m the most confident that I have been knowing that it has been race-by-race trying to get her fit and still keeping her healthy and mentally in the game. Her last race she was tired and she was close to some really fast fractions. I think she is going to run a good race and do her best. She doesn’t owe us any explanations. She is getting older and she’ll tell us when she’s had enough. But she is doing really well, and I’m pleased with how she is going into this race,” said Heads.

At Attention winning on July 1st with Antonio Reyes up. (Michael Bye photo)

In the sixth race, the BC Cup Classic, Heads is seeking back-to-back Classic wins with At Attention. Owned by Dr. Bryan and Carol Anderson, the seven-year-old dark bay gelding will also be piloted by Reyes. Heads provided her two cents on At Attention heading into the race.

“We might not get as hot a pace this time. He has changed his running style. He used to come way off the pace and then he started showing speed away from the gate. Now, he is relaxing a little bit more again. A horse like that, pace is a big factor, but he is very versatile. Antonio Reyes knows him so well now. They are a good team. He is a classy horse and loves his job,” said Heads.

Heads has four other horses entered for the big day, including Stormy Blue (BC Cup Classic), Avana and Sunblaze (BC Cup Hong Kong), August Rain (BC Cup Sir Winston Churchill Trial), and Viva La Vino (BC Cup Distaff).

Meanwhile, well-established trainer Dino Condilenios will send out first-time starter Makena’s Joy in the BC Cup Nursery, an allowance stakes for two-year-olds going six-and-a-half furlongs with Silvino Morales aboard. In the seventh race, Condilenios sends out Pisco in the BC Cup Sir Winston Churchill Derby Trial, a handicap stakes for three-year-olds going a mile and a sixteenth.

Condilenios provided some insight on Pisco. “Obviously, he is going to be a bit of an outsider odds-wise, but I really feel that horse has turned the corner and he’s just been screaming for distance. I’m confident he is going to run a good one.” Owned by Swift Thoroughbreds Inc., Pisco will be ridden by Brian Boodramsingh.

Bunny, a daughter of Snuggles, will race in the Distaff. (Photo provided by Dino Condilenios)

Hopping over to the Distaff, Condilenios has entered four-year-old filly Bunny in the race with jockey Scott Williams aboard. The daughter of grade 3 winner Snuggles is coming off an allowance win back on July 13 going six-and-a-half furlongs. Despite the Distaff being her first route race, Condilenios feels she can go the distance.

“She just needs to relax. She is a really nice horse. Believe it or not – and I’ve maintained this since she was a two-year-old – I think she is more talented than her mom, which I know is shocking to hear. Her mom was more of a junkyard dog; she was just really tough, and she would do what she had to do to win. She never really flashed a lot in the morning. She was just very workman-like. She just knew what her job was and would go out there and do it, and she would fight until she won,” said Condilenios.

Condilenios, who also trained Snuggles, noted that Bunny is quite a different cup of tea to her mom when it comes to keeping her mind calm.

“This horse is a lot more talented in my opinion, but she is very fragile-minded. She got scratched because she got loose on post parade before, she’s been bad in the paddock, she just one of those horses that gets wound up really easily. We have a good routine with her now. We plugged her ears – last year we started that. It was the noises that were bothering her. I would school in the morning, for example, when it’s real quiet in the paddock and she would be totally fine. But then you take her up with all the music, the noise and the crowd and she would lose it a little bit. So, we schooled her a lot and this year she’s been great, knock on wood, she has really matured,” said Condilenios.

Condilenios added: “She is a really nice horse. I know there are some nice mares in that race like Air Force, Infinite Patience and We B Three, but I definitely think she belongs, and I don’t think she will embarrass herself in there at all. Who knows, maybe even win it.”

“From the three that I run, I expect the other two to run decent enough, but she [Bunny] is the one that is a legit stakes horse, or at least I think so.”

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First race post time is 2:30 p.m. Pacific time, 5:30 p.m. for those watching and cheering from the Eastern time zone.