Clayton fights off challenge, wins Woodbine prep for Queen's Plate

In the 1 1/8 mile, $150,000 Plate Trial on the Tapeta at Woodbine, there were no surprises. Tace favorite Clayton showed what he could do, stalking in fourth for much of the race, then turning on the speed down the stretch, taking the victory by half a length.

The son of Bodemeister and Smarthalf by Smart Strike, trained by Kevin Attard, earned his third career victory, and first in a stakes race. He fought off Halo Again and Dotted Line down the stretch in a race that was closer than Attard, who earned his first stakes victory of 2020, would have liked.

“He loomed up like he was gonna kick on like he did in his last race,” Attard said after the race. “Obviously they kind of kicked on with him and made it a good fight to the finish. We’ll kind of watch the replay, see how he comes out of this race and take it from there, see if there’s any adjustments that need to be made.”

Splits for the race were :24.72, :49.31, 1:13.73 and 1:37.93. The winning time was 1:50.61.

Clayton is owned by Daniel Plouffe and Donato Lanni, who purchased him at the 2018 Keeneland September yearling sale for $50,000.

Presumably, the next move for the colt will be to aim for the $1 million Queen’s Plate at Woodbine on Sept. 12.

“We’re going in with one of the favorites,” Attard said. “We know we kind of have a good shot to take it all, but there’s going to be more shooters coming and we know it won’t be easy.”

Clayton returned $3.30 with the victory.