Roger Attfield | Horse Racing Free Tips

Sophomore Fillies In The Spotlight At Woodbine This Saturday

The $150,000 Grade 3 Selene Stakes and the $125,000 Fury Stakes share the spotlight this Saturday at Woodbine.

A key prep on the road to this year's Woodbine Oaks presented by Budweiser (August 1, at Woodbine), the 1 1/16-mile main track Selene, for 3-year-olds, has attracted a pair of Canadian-breds – Il Malocchio (cross-entered in the Fury) and Munnyfor Ro – who could contest the $500,000 Oaks.

Vying for top honors in the Selene is Kentucky-bred Gote Go, a 3-year-old daughter of Street Boss.

Trained by dual hall of fame inductee Roger Attfield, and bred and owned by William Harrigan, Gote Go will be making her first stakes appearance and fifth start at Woodbine.

“I'm excited,” said Harrigan. “She's running in her first graded stakes and I hope it won't be her last.”

The chestnut filly, who sports a mark of 2-1-0 from seven races, arrives at the Selene off an impressive two-length triumph in a 1 1/16-mile turf engagement at Churchill Downs on June 5.

Under Julien Leparoux, Gote Go rallied to take top spot in the $102,000 allowance event, just shy of one month after a fifth-place effort at the same distance.

“She got a great ride from Julien and we were very confident that she would run well and she did,” said Harrigan.

Gote Go debuted last August at Woodbine, finishing eighth in a six-furlong main track race. After a fifth on the Toronto oval's Inner Turf and a second to Sleek Lynx on the E.P. Taylor Turf Course, she broke her maiden courtesy of a half-length victory over 1 1/16 miles on the Tapeta.

“I've known her since she was a foal,” started Harrigan. “We put her through a yearling sale, the July Fasig-Tipton Sale, and I didn't get what I wanted, so we bought her back. I brought her down to Payson Park – I go there every winter with the 2-year-olds – and we had her in a 2-year-old sale. That was the year the 2-year-old sales were off because of COVID, so we took her out of the sale. I brought her back up here to Keeneland and trained her for a few weeks. I sent her to Roger. I told him, 'Roger, most horses that come out of those 2-year-olds sales need time off, but this one doesn't. Treat like she's yours and onward you go.'”

Harrigan hopes Saturday's effort is Gote Go's best one yet.

“She broke her maiden at Woodbine and then we gave her some time off. I told Roger we shouldn't worry about a horse that just won – let's have a good year next year. That's what we did. He brought her along and here we are today. We're glad to be in there with a chance and I'm excited to have a horse I bred in there, in Roger's hands.”

California Lily, Flash Drive, Sweet Souper Sweet, and Danger, are also set to go postward in the 68th running of the Selene.

Trainer Mark Casse has won a record six Selene crowns, including the past three editions. His first Selene score came in 2001 with Dark Ending.

The Selene is complemented by the Fury, a seven-furlong race over the Tapeta for three-year-old Canadian-bred fillies, also an important fixture ahead of the Oaks.

Lorena, a daughter of Souper Speedy, will look to make it three straight wins to start her career.

The dark bay, trained and co-owned by Stuart Simon, was impressive in her debut last November at Woodbine, and followed it up with a smart score on June 19 at the Toronto oval.

Brent and Russell McLellan, and former jockey Gerry Olguin are the other co-owners of Lorena.

Curlin's Catch, winner of this year's Suncoast Stakes, returns to Woodbine where she contested the first two races of her career. Bodacious Miss, boasting a mark of 1-0-0 from three starts, Owen's Tour Guide, two-for-two, Victorian Queen stakes champ Il Malocchio, El Bayern, last year's Muskoka Stakes winner, and Astrological, sixth in her debut, round out the field.

The Selene is race seven on Saturday's 11-race card. The Fury is slated for race nine. First post time is 1:20 p.m. Fans can also watch and wager on all the action via HPIbet.com. Sunday's card features a pair of important Queen's Plate preps, the $150,000 Grade 3 Marine Stakes and $125,000 Queenston Stakes.

FIELD FOR THE $150,000 GRADE 3 SELENE

POST – HORSE – JOCKEY – TRAINER

1 – Gote Go – Steven Bahen – Roger Attfield

2 – California Lily – Rafael Hernandez – Mark Casse

3 – Our Flash Drive – Patrick Husbands – Mark Casse

4 – Il Malocchio – Kazushi Kimura – Martin Drexler

5 – Sweet Souper Sweet – Luis Contreras – Michael Trombetta

6 – Danger – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Mark Casse

7 – Munnyfor Ro – Justin Stein – Kevin Attard

FIELD FOR THE $125,000 FURY

POST – HORSE – JOCKEY – TRAINER

1 – Bodacious Miss – Justin Stein – Steve Owens

2 – Owen's Tour Guide – Ademar Santos – William Armata

3 – Il Malocchio – Patrick Husbands – Martin Drexler

4 – Curlin's Catch – Rafael Hernandez – Mark Casse

5 – Lorena – Gary Boulager – Stuart Simon

6 – El Bayern – Sheena Ryan – Mike Mattine

7 – Astrological – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Mark Casse

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Gray’s Fable Controls Pace, Gives Hall Of Famer Attfield His First Appleton Victory

Steve Goldfine, Kari Provost and Jeff Zlonis' gelding Gray's Fable, racing for the first time in 197 days, became a stakes winner in his second try with a front-running 2 ¼-length triumph in Saturday's $100,000 Kitten's Joy Appleton (G3) at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

The 69^th running of the one-mile Appleton for 4-year-olds and up on turf was the fourth of 10 stakes, and first of six graded, worth $1.85 million on a blockbuster 14-race program anchored by the $750,000 Curlin Florida Derby (G1) presented by Hill 'n' Dale Farms at Xalapa, one of the country's premier Triple Crown preps.

Also bred by Zlonis, Gray's Fable completed the distance in 1:32.64 over a firm course to give jockey Junior Alvarado his second win of the day and both he and Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield their first Appleton triumph.

Breaking from the rail in a field of eight, Gray's Fable quickly established position up front after a quarter-mile in 23.61 seconds and a half in 46.55, tracked in second by Ever Dangerous. Gray's Fable remained in control after going six furlongs in 1:09.38 and extended his advantage once straightened for home.

Renaisance Frolic got up to edge Ever Dangerous for second, followed by Perfect Speighty, 2-1 favorite Seismic Wave, Forever Mo, Little Menace and Frostmourne.

Gray's Fable was making his first start since capturing a one-mile optional claimer on the Woodbine turf last Sept. 12. In his only other stakes attempt, the son of two-time turf champion Gio Ponti was sixth in the Connaught Cup (G2) last June, also at Woodbine.

$100,000 Kitten's Joy Appleton (G3) Quotes

Winning jockey Junior Alvarado (Gray's Fable): “He's a horse that in the post parade he was kind of full of himself. He was showing he's kind of like an attitude horse, he wants to do things his way. He doesn't want you to get in his way. When we left the gate he broke very good so I kind of smooched him a little bit and let him do his own thing. I was pretty sure that he knew what he was going to do.”

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Wilson Making The Most Of ‘Bizarre’ Year

One of the unique challenges presented by this year's pandemic has been the restricted travel of jockeys between different racetracks. At Woodbine in Canada, jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson found a way to turn that restriction into an opportunity.

“We always like to root for the horses who ship from here to run out of town,” Wilson said. “This year it's been far more rare, so we've been watching them a lot more closely. It's always fun to root for your home team.”

Wilson was glued to a television screen when trainer Gail Cox sent Sam-Son Farm's Say the Word to Saratoga in August, running the 5-year-old son of More Than Ready in a 1 3/16-mile allowance race on the grass.

“Junior Alvarado rode him and he came last to first with a wicked run,” Wilson recalled. “I was extremely impressed, and I mentioned to Gail that I liked the way he'd run and that I'd like to ride him.

“Woodbine only had five Grade 1's this year, and quite often we get a lot of ship-in horses, so the locals have to step up their game. I'm always on the lookout for serious horses, and I thought he'd be a tough horse.”

Wilson first rode Say the Word in the G3 Singspiel Stakes over 1 1/4 miles on the grass, beaten just 1 1/2 lengths overall to finish third.

“I got to know him a little bit; he's a little bit unique so I had to find that happy balance and get on the same page with him,” said Wilson. “It's like in hockey, if you take a left wing and place him on the right, it's going to take him a little bit of time to get used to that side.”

Cox and Wilson's end goal was to stretch the horse out to the 1 1/2 miles of the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf, held last Saturday, Oct. 17, and Say the Word responded brilliantly. Making his signature last-to-first move, Say the Word made a big run in the stretch to win by a length.

“Say the Word was definitely coming into his own this year,” Wilson said. “I'm grateful to have gotten the mount when I did.”

Say the Word and Emma-Jayne Wilson winning the Northern Dancer Turf Stakes

Of course, big race days don't feel quite the same this year without the presence of spectators at the Ontario oval.

“When I walk up on big race days at Woodbine, I enjoy that moment looking up at the grandstand and its totally full,” Wilson explained. “Normally on Queen's Plate day, you come on the gap at the seven-eighths pole and the grandstand is packed, just thousands and thousands of people, and you can feel each and every one of them, their energy.

“This year was bizarre. You can feel the energy of the horses, the jocks, the anxiety, but it wasn't the same. It didn't have the anticipation, that buzz of the crowd, and I definitely miss that. It's a big part of our game; the fans are massive and we wouldn't be there without them.”

Though Wilson has earned both an Eclipse Award and multiple Sovereign Awards for her riding career, last weekend's Northern Dancer Turf is just the third Grade 1 win added to her resume. The first came in 2015, also in the Northern Dancer Turf aboard Canadian champion Interpol. It took five years until she rode her second Grade 1 winner, Lady Speightspeare, victorious in last month's G1 Natalma Stakes.

“Lady Speightspeare is a pretty significant horse,” said Wilson. “I think you're going to be hearing her name quite a lot down the road.”

A Charles Fipke homebred out of his multiple graded stakes-winning mare Lady Shakespeare, the 2-year-old daughter of Speightstown won both her starts this year for trainer Roger Attfield. Lady Speightspeare earned an expenses-paid berth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf via her Natalma victory, but an ill-timed knee injury will keep her from making the trip to Keeneland.

“She's an athlete and a competitor, and she wasn't taking any prisoners (in the Natalma),” Wilson said. “It's disappointing that she's not able to go to the Breeders' Cup, because she was definitely one that I was willing to sit out races for, just to ride that one race; she is that good.”

Were Wilson to have made the Breeders' Cup trip with the filly, it would likely have cost her a total of 24 days away from Woodbine because of COVID-19 quarantine protocols. The jockey is currently tied for third in the standings with 72 victories this year, so her willingness to give up those days of riding indicate just how special she believes Lady Speightspeare could be.

What has made her two Grade 1 victories and strong 2020 season even more special, Wilson said, is the fact that she missed significant portions of the last two seasons with injuries.

“I'd been pretty lucky,” Wilson said. “I had a liver laceration in 2010 that kept me out of the saddle for three months, and it was serious, but physically I was okay. I didn't have any broken bones or anything, so I just had to maintain my physical fitness while being careful.”

In 2018, Wilson took a spill the morning before the meet started at Woodbine that resulted in the worst injuries of her career. She broke her humerus (upper arm) all the way through and required surgery with a 5 1/2-inch metal plate and nearly a dozen screws to put it back together.

“I wasn't expecting the challenges that came along with it,” Wilson admitted. “I was thinking it would take about six to eight weeks for the bone to heal, which was accurate, but then I remember trying to take my arm out of the sling and straighten it and I just couldn't.

“It was immobilized from the moment I hit the ground until a few weeks after surgery. After a trauma like that and then it gets seized up, it was disconcerting that my arm wasn't working the way I wanted it to. I wasn't prepared for the rehab; the muscle atrophy and loss of range of motion were just shocking.”

Four months after the injury Wilson was able to get back in the saddle, and she wound up winning 48 races at Woodbine in 2018.

Last year, her injury occurred on Sept. 8 in an afternoon spill. She fractured her left clavicle and three bones in her right hand, also requiring a surgical repair.

“The severity of those wasn't nearly as bad, but they're still injuries,” Wilson said. “I've learned over the years that I'm a professional athlete, and part of my job is knowing how to rehab. Most importantly, the rest days are just as important as the working ones.

“When I was a kid I was just, 'Go go go!', but you come to appreciate the days of healing. I made healing my job, and it was essentially eight weeks to the day that I was back in the saddle, so that was reassuring.

“I really have a great team behind me. My wife (equine chiropractor Laura Trotter) is just phenomenally supportive, and my personal trainer Matt Munro is a physiotherapist as well. When you have such a passion and a love for the sport like I do, it makes it easy to work harder and be ready to go as soon as you return.”

Wilson showed she was definitely ready to return, capping her 2019 season with 59 wins to finish sixth in the standings last year.

The jockey used to travel south in the winters to work the Fair Grounds meet, but that changed when she and Trotter started a family. Now, Wilson prefers to stay home with her 3-year-old twin daughters, Avery and Grace. She'll still fly to Florida a couple times a month as the weather starts to warm up, staying for the weekend to breeze a few horses for regular clients, then returning home to her family.

Until this spring, of course. The coronavirus pandemic put the entire Woodbine meet in jeopardy, so like the rest of her fellow jockeys based at the Ontario track, Wilson was grateful to be riding when the season started in June, about six weeks later than usual.

The hard-working 39-year-old has since turned the abbreviated meet into a successful one, making it one of her best years in the saddle yet. Wilson says she's far from finished, though.

“This game's been good to me, and I enjoy it every single day, every single leg up,” Wilson said. “I think I'll keep riding for as long as I'm healthy and happy. When you're winning races for great connections it's easy to have a love for the sport, and being in the winner's circle always helps you pull out of tough times, so there's no better reason to keep going.”

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Trio Poised for Rematch in E.P. Taylor

The top three finishers in this summer’s GII Dance Smartly S. regroup in Sunday’s GI E.P. Taylor S. at Woodbine. Leading the fray in the Aug. 15 event, Augustin Stable’s Theodora B. (Ghostzapper) used the 10-furlong test as a stepping stone to a front-running victory in the 10 1/2-panel TVG S. at Kentucky Downs Sept. 15. Three for four this season–the sole off-the-board finish was registered on Woodbine’s synthetic surface–the 5-year-old is trained Michael Dickinson.

Peter Brant, Mrs. M V Magnier and Mrs. Paul Shanahan’s Etoile (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) finished only 3/4 of a length a drift of Theodora B. in the aforementioned Dance Smartly in only her second start in the U.S. for trainer Chad Brown. Victorious in Saint-Cloud’s G3 Prix Cleopatre while under the guidance of Jean-Claude Rouget at three, the French-bred closed to finish eighth-beaten 4 1/2 lengths-in her U.S. and sophomore debut in the GI Gamely S. at Santa Anita in May. Rafael Hernandez, aboard in the Dance Smartly, reunites with the 4-year-old for her Grade I unveiling.

Rounding out the triumvirate is John McCormack’s Elizabeth Way (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), trained by Canadian Hall of Famer Roger Attfield. On the board in one of five starts in her native Ireland, the chestnut reeled off two straight wins for her new connections at Gulfstream this winner–including the 9 1/2-furlong GIII The Very One S.–before finishing third in the GIII Orchid S. over 11 panels in March. A well-beaten 13th in Churchill’s GIII Mint Julep S. May 30, the daughter of graded winner Maid’s Causeway (Giant’s Causeway) bounced back to annex the one-mile GII Nassau S. June 27. Following her Dance Smartly third, she ran an even fourth behind the re-opposing Ridefourthecause (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the Sept. 12 GII Canadian S. The latter steps up to Grade I competition off of a two-race win skein for trainer Gail Cox and Sam-Son Farms.

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