Woodbine: 3 horses in Canadian Stakes may defect to U.S. race

Defending winner Moira, who was Canada’s 2022 horse of the year, is part of a deep distaff field entered for Saturday’s Grade 2, US$145,403 Canadian Stakes on Saturday at Woodbine.

The question is whether she tries to repeat and, if she does line up, who might join her among the 11 fillies and mares entered Wednesday for the 1 1/8-mile turf race.

Click here for Woodbine entries and results.

A close second last month in the Diana (G1), Moira also is entered for the $500,000 Beverly D. (G2), a 1 3/16-mile test at Colonial Downs that was pushed back 24 hours to Sunday because of the rain threat from tropical storm Debby.

Now the horse race in Toronto has turned into an international game of cat and mouse.

“Waiting to see how the weather plays out and then decide,” trainer Kevin Attard said Wednesday evening about Moira, a 5-year-old Ghostzapper mare who won the 2022 Queen’s Plate on synthetic and last year’s Canadian on the turf. “I’m hoping to go, but I would like something close to firm ground.”

The Meteorological Service of Canada predicted a 60 percent chance of showers Thursday and a 40 percent chance Friday before a sunny Saturday at Woodbine.

Moira is owned by Lanni Bloodstock, Madaket Stables and SF Racing. She has a record of 14: 5-5-2 with earnings of US$1,513,999.

Libban, the 4-year-old winner of the $125,000 Wasted Tears last month at Lone Star, and Mission of Joy, a 4-year-old who would be making a class drop after a third in the Just a Game (G1) and sixth in the Diana, also are cross-entered in the Canadian and Beverly D. Based on what their trainers said Wednesday, both appear headed for Virginia.

“Libban is running at Colonial,” Saffie Joseph Jr. said.

“I am planning to go to (the) Beverly D., assuming Moira stays in Canada,” Mission of Joy’s trainer Graham Motion said.

Adding to the intrigue are the riding assignments. Rafael Hernández is listed as the rider of Moira and her stablemate Full Count Felicia. Frankie Dettori was named by Motion to ride on both Mission of Joy and Five Towns.

Even without Libban and Mission of Joy, the Canadian field boasts at least five other would-be starters who bring cases to win Saturday.

Fashionably Fab, a 4-year-old also trained by Attard, had her five-race winning streak snapped last month. That was when she finished third, losing by a only a neck in the Trillium (G3) going 1 1/16 miles on the Woodbine synthetic.

Last year’s Woodbine Oaks victor Elysian Field, who finished second in the King’s Plate and Breeders’ Stakes, got her first win as a 4-year-old last month. That was when she prevailed by a head in an allowance race moved from the turf to the Woodbine synthetic.

Five Towns, a 4-year-old transfer from Europe, was a stakes winner at Laurel Park ahead of her distant second last out May 18 in the Gallorette (G3) at Pimlico.

Star Fortress, who won her first race after being transferred last year from Europe to North America, lost by a head in the Sheepshead Bay (G3) at Aqueduct and then finished 11th in the New York (G1) last month. In her 5-year-old debut she finished 11th in the Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational (G2).

Allowance winner Forever After All is a 5-year-old allowance winner who lost by a half-length last month in the Anchorage at Churchill Downs.

Forever Dixie, a 4-year-old who was second in the Trillium; Millie Girl, a 6-year-old who was third in the Nassau (G2); and Full Count Felicia, an Attard-trained 5-year-old who was fourth in the Nassau, also were entered.

The Canadian Stakes is scheduled as the ninth of 10 races Saturday at Woodbine with a post time of 5:26 p.m. EDT.