Star of the Show

There have been dozens of memorable editions of the Pattison Canadian International (Grade 1) in the 76-year history of one of North America’s most famous races. Certainly the incredible win by the legendary Secretariat in 1973 that capped his brilliant career made the race a truly international event. Then there were the wins by great Thoroughbreds Dahlia, Youth, Exceller and All Along who invaded Woodbine racetrack and thrilled the crowds.

The buildup to this year’s International on Oct. 19 centred on the arrival of Group 1 winner Brown Panther, co-owned by famous English soccer star Michael Owen and Andrew Black, founder of the popular Internet exchange betting company Betfair. Owen made it known through social media and in the Toronto Star newspaper that he was excited to bring the Irish St. Leger winner to Woodbine and its European-friendly E.P. Taylor turf course. One of his English rivals, Hillstar, owned by Sir Evelyn Rothschild, of the famous Rothschild family, made the trip too for legendary trainer Sir Michael Stoute.

The re-match would never take place.

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Instead, Brown Panther provided plenty of fireworks on the day of the $1 million race but not in the way anyone could have expected. The keyed-up colt was more than ready to go as he pranced onto the Woodbine turf for the $1 million race, but it soon became evident the millionaire son of Shiracco was becoming a bit too excited.

When outrider Rob Love came to assist jockey Richard Kingscote, who had hopped off the horse and was leading him to the starting gate, Brown Panther became more hyper. After Kingscote was given a leg up on the colt, Love let go and Brown Panther took off, making a bee-line for the narrow opening between the starting gate and the outside railing. With Kingscote’s feet out of the irons and not being able to control the runaway six-year-old, Brown Panther ran race-speed around the turn before Kingscote fell to the turf. Brown Panther was caught soon after, but ultimately had to be scratched.

Looking on in stunned silence was Owen, who had hopped on a red-eye flight from England to spend a few hours at Woodbine to cheer on his prized horse. Owen did not stick around to talk to reporters, but tweeted the following morning, “Gut wrenching that Brown Panther boiled over in the preliminaries. He just wanted to get on with it! He’s fine this morning. Got to suffer the ups and downs in any walk of life. Days like yesterday just make the good ones taste sweeter. He will be back.”

Hillstar, meanwhile, kept his cool, thanks in part to his new routine of having blinkers on in the paddock and staying away from the other horses.

The son of Danehill Dancer (Ire) had been a work in progress for 10-time champion English trainer Stoute who had been confident all along that the 4-year-old was Grade 1 material.

The colt had begun his career with flair, winning the King Edward V (Eng-Group 2) at Ascot in just his fifth career start, but it would be eight races and 14 months before the colt would win again. That score came in his outing before the International in the Arc Legacy Trial at Newbury on Sept. 20 in England.

Hillstar kept the streak going at Woodbine as the handsome bay and his jockey Ryan Moore made the most of a perfect stalking trip behind American graded stakes winner The Pizza Man. Hillstar took an early lead into the stretch and held off Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Big Blue Kitten to win by three-quarters of a length in 2:29 for 1 ¾ miles on turf.

The victory was the second for both trainer and rider in the International. Stoute previously won the race in 1996 with Singspiel while Moore won last year aboard three-time winner Joshua Tree. It was the first International victory for Rothschild who was in attendance to watch his colt win.

Hillstar was bred by Rothschild’s sister Renee Robeson, owner of Southcourt Stud. He earned $600,000 (Can. funds) to nearly double his career earnings to $1,260,500. Hillstar has won four of 15 starts with six seconds and a third.

Here Comes the Judge

The European invaders made a clean sweep of Woodbine’s three graded turf stakes races on Oct. 19 and perhaps the most impressive winner was Just the Judge (Ire), who overcame a sloppy start in the E.P. Taylor Stakes (Grade 1) and traffic trouble into the stretch to win the $500,000 event by half a length over fellow European Odeliz as the 8 to 5 favourite.

Sam-Son Farms’ Canadian-bred Deceptive Vision, who had threatened at the top of the stretch when challenging pacesetter Wall of Sound, wound up third, two lengths behind Odeliz. Wall of Sound hung on for fourth.

Owned by Qatar Racing (which also owns Trade Storm) and The Sangster family and trained by Charlie Hills, Just the Judge was ridden by Jamie Spencer, who retired from riding after the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Santa Anita on Nov. 2. Just the Judge, a four-year-old by Lawman (Fre) — Faraday Light (Ire), by Rainbow Quest had won the Irish 1000 Guineas (Ire-IT) in May 2013.

Now You See Him

When Caspar Netscher entered the Woodbine walking ring for the six-furlongs Nearctic Stakes (Grade 2) on the turf, the five-year-old horse let out some loud whinnies. No doubt the English-bred bred son of Dutch Art (GB)—Bella Cantata (GB), by Singspiel (Ire) was touting himself. Minutes later, he burst between rivals in deep stretch to win his first North American start, and his first race since 2012, by three-quarters of a length in 1:08.97. Canadian-bred Black Hornet set a sizzling pace and held for second over Calgary Cat, another Woodbine-based stakes winner.

A top 2-year-old, Caspar Netscher was sold by owner Charles Wentworth to stud in 2012, but got only three mares in foal from 54 bred. He returned to racing in 2013 for Wentworth. Caspar Netscher was ridden by Andrew Mullen and is trained by David Simcock, who won the Woodbine Mile (Grade 1) with Trade Storm and the Northern Dancer Stakes (Grade 1) with Sheikhzayadroad in September.