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Contreras Rides Tio Magico To Victory In Queenston At Woodbine

Sam-Son Farm homebred Tio Magico took the co-featured $125,000 Queenston Stakes, a seven-furlong sprint for Canadian-foaled three-year-olds, in front-running fashion with Luis Contreras aboard for trainer Gail Cox.

The Uncle Mo-Magic Broomstick gelding broke sharp and cruised through fractions of :23.85 and :46.95 en route to the 2-1/2-length victory in 1:22.54.

“I just love this guy. I think you haven't seen the best of him,” said a beaming Contreras after the victory. “He has something that attracts me and makes me feel good.”

Cutting back to seven furlongs after finishing fifth in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race here on June 19, Tio Magico paid $6.50 to win as the 2-1 second choice. The winning effort improved his record to 2-1-1 from eight career starts.

“We've always liked this horse a lot,” said Cox. “He ran so well last year, and I think we just probably messed around with his style a little bit. This is how he wants to run, and I think he'll run a distance like this. His gallop out was huge. So, it was so nice to be able to win like this.”

Tio Magico was a top three Queen's Plate contender, assessed at 6-1 odds in the Winterbook predictive rankings. When asked about targeting the 1 1/4-mile first leg of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown, which takes place on Sunday, Aug. 22 at Woodbine, Cox said the date would be up for discussion among the connections.

Artie's Storm angled out wide from mid-pack on the final turn and came on to finish second in the Queenston, with Queen's Plate eligible Red River Rebel, the 9-5 favourite, chasing from the rail in third. Del Griffith finished fourth and was followed by Master Spy, another Plate contender who pressed the pace near the turn, and Download.

Gretzky the Great was scratched along with Candy Overload, who was cross-entered in the Marine.

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Casse Gets Easy Win With Easy Time In Marine Stakes At Woodbine

Rafael Hernandez and Easy Time hung out in the middle of the field of six, moved to the front on the final turn, and easily found the winner's circle in the Grade 3 Marine Stakes at Woodbine.

Going a mile and a sixteenth on the Tapeta at the Toronto, Ontario track, the six 3-year-old colts and geldings broke evenly, with Tidal Forces and Haddassah matching strides early. On the first turn, Keveh Nicholls on Haddassah ceded the lead to Tidal Forces, sitting a half-length back for the first part of the race. On the backstretch, Nicholls moved Haddassah to the front, a length in front of Tidal Forces and Easy Time.

As the field approached the turn, Rafael Hernandez gave Easy Time the cue and started their move for the lead on the outside of Haddassah. Into the stretch, Easy Time was in command, leading by two lengths with Keep Grinding out toward the middle of the track charging late. Keep Grinding's move was not fast enough to catch Easy Time, who found the G3 Marine an easy victory in 1:43.62 for the mile and a sixteenth. Haddassah held on for third, with Frosted Over, Tidal Forces, and Candy Overload rounding out the field.

Find this race's chart here.

Easy Time paid $11.10, $7.50, and $4.90. Keep Grinding paid $10.60 and $6.70. Haddassah paid $3.90 to show.

“It was unbelievable today,” said Hernandez, who was also aboard the Kentucky-bred colt for his victorious career debut at Woodbine last October. “They told me, 'Raffi, just ride with confidence, get in good position and he's going to do the rest.' He did it.”

Trained by Mark Casse, Easy Time is a Kentucky bred sired by Not This Time out of the Cape Town mare Running Creek. He was bred by Woods Edge Farm and sold to Lori and Mark Collinsworth at the Keeneland September 2019 Yearling Sale for $62,000. Owners Breeze Easy purchased Easy Time from Ocala Stud at the 2020 Ocala Breeders' July Two-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale for $250,000.

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Lorena Stays Undefeated With Fury Stakes Win At Woodbine

Undefeated three-year-old filly Lorena led all the way to win the $125,000 Fury Stakes and keep her perfect record intact for trainer and co-owner Stu Simon on Saturday at Woodbine.

Leading the field of Canadian-bred fillies through a quarter in :23.57 and half-mile :46.82, Lorena turned back her late challengers to win the seven-furlong sprint in 1:23.94 in rein to the hot-handed Gary Boulanger.

Through the turn, Lorena rebuffed Owen's Tour Guide, who also entered the Fury with a two-for-two record, and then held the late-rallying Astrological at bay down the stretch to defeat that foe by three-quarters of a length. Less than a length behind, Curlin's Catch completed a 2-3 finish for trainer Mark Casse.

Il Malocchio finished four lengths back in fourth with Bodacious Miss, Owen's Tour Guide, and El Bayern rounding out the field.

“I thought that she broke well, and she seemed to make the lead rather easily,” said Simon, who co-owns the Souper Speedy-Negotiable filly with Brent & Russell McLellan and former jockey Gerry Olguin. “She was setting sensible fractions and looked comfortable, so I wasn't worried about where she was at.”

Simon said he is still mulling over whether the Ontario-bred filly will head to the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks presented by Budweiser, scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 1 at Woodbine.

“I hate to put too much on a young horse's plate, so we'll take it under careful consideration,” he said.

“She's an awfully good filly,” he added. “She ranks right up there with all of them. I think we've been fortunate to get some good young horses and it's worked out well.”

Lorena paid $3.90 to win as the 4-5 favorite.

It was a banner day for Boulanger, who had a grand slam on the 11-race program.

“It's everything that we work for and that we want,” said the veteran reinsman, who picked up the mount on Lorena when making his comeback from injury this season. “Everybody wants to do well, especially coming back from injuries, but sometimes it's harder to get back into that light. I've been fortunate to be involved with some great people that have given me the opportunities, like Stu and everybody else, and it's a lot of fun just getting back.”

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Live Oak Gets Selene Stakes Win With Our Flash Drive

Trainer Mark Casse continued his Grade 3 Selene Stakes win streak as Live Oak Plantation's homebred Our Flash Drive took command on the final turn and drove clear to win the $150,000 co-feature for three-year-old fillies on Saturday at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario.

Casse earned his fourth consecutive victory in the G3 event, with Patrick Husbands engineering the winning trip aboard the Florida-bred daughter of Ghostzapper.

Stretching out to 1 1/16 miles on the main track, Our Flash Drive stalked the front-running California Lily early on before moving up to press the pace after opening fractions of :24.78 and :49.03. With Husbands signaling it was go-time past the 1:12.87 three-quarter mark, Our Flash Drive overtook the pacesetter and took off down the lane to win by 2-1/4 lengths in 1:44.69.

Woodbine Oaks eligible Munnyfor Ro, who broke outward, rallied home from the backfield to take the runner-up honors under Justin Stein. It was another 2-1/4 lengths back to third-place finisher Sweet Souper Sweet, another Live Oak homebred trained by Michael Trombetta, who finished three lengths ahead of California Lily. Gote Go followed in fifth and the Casse-trained Danger was eased up and completed the order of finish.

Sent postward as the odds-on favourite, Our Flash Drive returned $4.70 to win.

Now two-for-four lifetime, she boasts back-to-back wins at Woodbine.

Casse, who has won the Selene a total of seven times, has teamed with Husbands to take four editions of the race. They combined for past wins with Dark Ending (2001), Dixie Strike (2012), and Miss Mo Mentum (2018).

The connections of Il Malocchio, who was cross-entered in the Selene, opted to compete in the Fury two races later.

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