King’s Plate Highlights Woodbine’s 2024 Stakes Schedule

Anchored by the 165th running of the King's Plate, Woodbine's 2024 stakes schedule features 38 graded races, four of them Grade I events. The track's stakes schedule this year is missing the GI Canadian International, which was put on hiatus, “after review and consideration of industry and logistical challenges,” according to a Woobine press release.

In another change to the track's traditional line-up of stakes, the $750,000 GI E. P. Taylor S. will be moved up three weeks and will be run on a Sept. 14 card which also includes the $1-million GI Woodbine Mile, $500,000 GI Johnnie Walker Natalma S. and $500,000 GI bet365 Summer S.

The $1-million King's Plate will be run Aug. 17, while the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks will be held July 20. The Oaks is the first leg of the Canadian Triple Tiara, which is completed by the Aug. 10 $250,000 Bison City S. and Sept. 8 $250,000 Wonder Where S.

The Canada Day Racing Festival will be held June 29. The stakes-filled card includes the GII Highlander S., GII Nassau S., GIII Dominion Day S., GIII Selene S. and GIII Marine S.

To view the entire 2024 Thoroughbred stakes schedule, click here.

The post King’s Plate Highlights Woodbine’s 2024 Stakes Schedule appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

2023 Sovereign Awards Finalists Announced

The Jockey Club of Canada unveiled the 2023 Sovereign Awards finalists Monday led by Kings Plate S. winner Paramount Prince (Society's Chairman) and Woodbine Oaks heroine Elysian Field (Hard Spun). The winners of each category, along with Canada's 2023 Horse of the Year, will be revealed during the Annual Sovereign Award ceremony held April 18 in Woodbridge, Ontario. Awards will also be given to Outstanding Groom and Outstanding Off-Track Worker along with the E.P. Taylor Award. Finalists are listed alphabetically below:

Champion 2-year-old Female: Living Magic (Justify), Tripolina (Constitution), Witwatersrand (Connect)

Champion 2-year-old Male: Babbo (Kantharos), My Boy Prince (Cairo Prince), Two Ghosts (Ghostzapper)

Champion 3-year-old Female: Elysian Field (Hard Spun), Fashionably Fab (Silent Name {Jpn}), Solo Album (Curlin)

Champion 3-year-old Male: Paramount Prince (Society's Chairman), Patches O'Houlihan (Reload), Touch'n Ride (Candy Ride {Arg})

Champion Older Main Track Female: Il Malocchio (Souper Speedy), Infinite Patience (Sungold), Millie Girl (Hard Spun)

Champion Older Main Track Male: Treason (Constitution), Tyson (Tapit), Wolfie's Dynaghost (Ghostzapper)

Champion Female Turf Horse: Fev Rover (Ire) (Gutaifan {Ire}), Moira (Ghostzapper), Our Flash Drive (Ghostzapper)

Champion Male Turf Horse: Lucky Score (Lookin At Lucky), My Boy Prince (Cairo Prince), Palazzi (Pioneerof the Nile)

Champion Female Sprinter: Fashionably Fab (Silent Name {Jpn}), Loyalty (Hard Spun), Our Flash Drive (Ghostzapper)

Champion Male Sprinter: Dream Shake (Twirling Candy), Lucky Score (Lookin At Lucky), Patches O'Houlihan (Reload)

Outstanding Broodmare: Game (Fr) (Montjeu {Ire}), Mendocino Beano Smart Strike), Sunday Affair (A.P. Indy)

Outstanding Breeder: Adena Springs, Anderson Farms Ont. Inc, Chiefswood Stables Limited, Sam-Son Farm, Sean Fitzhenry

Outstanding Owner: Gary Barber, Chiefswood Stables Limited, Bruno Schickedanz

Outstanding Trainer: Kevin Attard, Mark E. Casse, Martin Drexler

Outstanding Apprentice Jockey: Fraser Aebly, Amanda Vandermeersch, Sofia Vives

Outstanding Jockey: Sahin Civaci, Rafael Manuel Hernandez, Kazushi Kimura

The post 2023 Sovereign Awards Finalists Announced appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Canadian Hall Of Fame Jockey Gary Boulanger Announces Retirement

Edited Press Release

Jockey Gary Boulanger, whose numerous career highlights include a Queen's Plate victory, has decided to call it a career.

“It's the right time,” Boulanger, 55, told Woodbine Communications. “I don't feel I have anything left to prove. I am so grateful to all the trainers, owners and my fellow riders for their support. Just like anyone who rides horses, there are many ups and downs, but you always find a way to persevere.”

A 2020 Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee, the native of Alberta enjoyed great success over a career that included devastating injuries. He overcame back problems, which required extensive surgery in the late 1990s, and came back from an eight-year absence precipitated by a spill at Gulfstream, which led to life-threatening injuries, in 2005.

No one believed he'd ever ride again, including Boulanger.

But after breezing horses for champion trainer Mark Casse, he rode his first race in eight years at Tampa Bay Downs in 2013. His first victory after the accident came on a Casse horse.

With a return to the saddle came a new perspective on the sport.

“I felt more in-tune with the horses, having more of a connection with them than I ever had. And it was a great feeling.”

As was the feeling Boulanger got when he would bring a horse back to the winner's circle.

His two biggest highlights came at Woodbine.

Moving his tack to the Toronto oval in June 2000, Boulanger partnered Dancethruthedawn (Mr. Prospector) to victory in the 2001 Queen's Plate and Woodbine Oaks.

In 2017, Boulanger received the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award.

Boulanger, whose son Brandon also rides, retires with 3,685 career victories and $83,543,336 in purse earnings.

“I'm not quite sure what is next, but I love the horses, the horse people and the sport,” said Boulanger, who also has a three-year-old son Cristian with wife Jennifer Petricca. “I would like to stay connected to racing, so we'll see what happens. For now, I want to spend time with my family and reflect on how lucky I was to be a jockey. To everyone who supported me… I can't thank you enough.”

The post Canadian Hall Of Fame Jockey Gary Boulanger Announces Retirement appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Elysian Field Gives Casse Fourth Woodbine Oaks

Bet down from a 12-1 morning line to be off at less than half that quote, Team Valor International and Gary Barber's Elysian Field (Hard Spun) stamped her authority on Sunday's Woodbine Oaks–despite some wayward ways in the final eighth of a mile–to give trainer Mark Casse a fourth victory in the first leg of the Canadian Filly Triple Crown and first since Barber's Lexie Lou (Sligo Bay {Ire}) scored in 2014. In partnership with Michael Langlois, Barber also won Sunday's Plate Trial S. with Paramount Prince (Society's Chairman).

With the white-hot Sahin Civaci at the controls, Elysian Field broke without incident from her low draw and raced three back on the fence about midfield and six lengths off the lead as 125-1 Friends for Life (Silent Name {Jpn}) and Fashionably Fab (Silent Name {Jpn}) matched motors up front. Favored Ticker Tape Home (Medaglia d'Oro), impressive winner of the Fury S. June 10 and trying a synthetic route for the first time, found the perfect stalking spot from third. Content to bide his time inside and wait for the runs to come, Civaci slipped Elysian Field some rein as they raced around the turn and the duo loomed a threat as they advanced, but Ticker Tape Home had gone for home three wide at the five-sixteenths and dared them to catch her. But reel her in they did, as Elysian Field rolled up to wrest command about a furlong out, threw her ears in the air and got to playing a bit as if the job was done, but was across the line safely clear. The final time was fractionally faster than that clocked by the colts in the Plate Trial one race earlier.

Dismissed at odds of 47-1 for her debut over the Saratoga turf last August for trainer Bruce Brown, Elysian Field flew home to be second and would have trained on following her private purchase, but for a health scare. Fifth, but placed eighth via DQ on the turf at Gulfstream Jan. 8, she filled the same spot going two turns on the synth in Hallandale Feb. 5. The chestnut graduated by 3 1/4 lengths in her first local try over 6 1/2 furlongs Apr. 30 and was four lengths adrift of Ticker Tape Home in second when last seen in the seven-furlong Fury.

“We bought her a month or two after her first start at Saratoga and we had her here for about two days and she went into the clinic for about a week, almost a little touch and go, colic,” said Casse. “I think it took its toll and we brought her home and she's got bigger and stronger. She's beautiful.”

Next up could be a date with the boys in the Aug. 20 King's Plate, a race won by Lexie Lou en route to Horse of the Year honors eight years ago.

“I want to talk to Barry Irwin from Team Valor, but she's a big, strong filly and I'm extremely happy how we get a month between the Oaks and the King's Plate, so that's important,” said Casse. “Three weeks is tough, so now we get four weeks, and I don't see why she wouldn't.”

Pedigree Notes:

Elysian Field is the 99th worldwide black-type winner for the highly reliable Hard Spun and her broodmare sire Smart Strike–whose daughters are now responsible for a remarkable 165 black-type winners around the world–needs little introduction, especially north of the border. Anderson Farms is also the breeder of Hard Spun's Grade I winner Hard Not to Love.

David Anderson's operation acquired Elysian Field's three-time winning dam for $100,000 in foal to Kantharos at the 2018 Keeneland January Sale and she produced three foals before being sold for $35,000 in foal to Collected at Keeneland November in 2021. The mare dropped a filly in 2022 and a filly by Union Rags this season, both in Kentucky.

Elysian Field's female family includes this year's GI Preakness S. hero National Treasure (Quality Road), SW Ultimate (Speightstown) and recent 'TDN Rising Star' Pirate (Omaha Beach).

 

 

Sunday, Woodbine
WOODBINE OAKS PRESENTED BY BUDWEISER, C$503,000, Woodbine, 7-23, (C), 3yo, f, 1 1/8m (AWT), 1:49.83, ft.
1–ELYSIAN FIELD, 121, f, 3, by Hard Spun
                1st Dam: Elysian, by Smart Strike
                2nd Dam: Initiation, by Deputy Minister
                3rd Dam: Proposal, by Mt. Livermore
($50,000 Ylg '21 FTKOCT; $70,000 2yo '22 OBSOPN).
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN. O-Team Valor International and Gary
Barber; B-Anderson Farms Ont. Inc. (ON); T-Mark E. Casse;
J-Sahin Civaci. C$300,000. Lifetime Record: 6-2-2-0, $306,692.
2–Wickenheiser, 121, f, 3, Lemon Drop Kid–Game (Fr), by
Montjeu (Ire). ($245,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP). 1ST BLACK TYPE.
O-Clay Scherer, Al & Bill Ulwelling and Kevin Attard; B-Sean
Fitzhenry (ON); T-Kevin Attard. C$100,000.
3–Fortyfiveseventy, 121, f, 3, Perfect Timber–Avall Tale, by
Tale of Ekati. ($4,000 Ylg '21 FTKOCT). O/T-Barbara J. Minshall;
B-Charles Fipke (ON). C$50,000.
Margins: 2 1/4, 3/4, 1HF. Odds: 5.80, 6.35, 50.80.
Also Ran: Me and My Shadow, Ticker Tape Home, Big Brass Bed, Flysofreeashleeb, Courtly Ro, Fashionably Fab, Tito's Calling, Collect Dattt, Delphia, Great Kate, Friends for Life.

The post Elysian Field Gives Casse Fourth Woodbine Oaks appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights