Competitive Canadian International Includes Big Blue Kitten

In addition to the mile and one-half Pattison, one of Canada’s richest thoroughbred races (the other $1 million races are the Queen’s Plate and Woodbine Mile), two other turf stakes will be showcased – the Grade 1, $500,000 E.P. Taylor, at one mile and one-quarter for fillies and mares and the Grade 2, $300,000 Nearctic at six furlongs. 

  

The 77th edition of the International will go postward at 3:32 pm ET.  TSN will provide special live coverage across Canada from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET.  This marks the 12th year that Pattison Outdoor, Canada's largest outdoor advertising company, has sponsored Woodbine’s turf classic, which rewards the winner with $600,000.   All horses carry 126 pounds.

Toronto Maple Leaf legend and community ambassador Wendel Clark was the guest drawmaster when the post positions were drawn Thursday at Woodbine.

British-bred Brown Panther (PP4, 2-1), a six-year-old son of 2005 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Shirocco, has been installed as the 2-1 morning line choice from post 4.  He arrives from England after winning the Group 1 Irish St. Leger, the one and three-quarter mile classic, September 14 at the Curragh as a 14-1 outsider.

Trained by Tom Dascombe for owners Andrew Black and former star English footballer Michael Owen (Owen Promotions), Brown Panther has been a world traveller in a remarkable career, a 10-time winner in 24 outings, campaigning in England, Germany, Ireland, France and Australia while banking over $1.1 million.   Richard Kingscote, who has been aboard for all but four of his starts, will ride.

“It was a hugely exciting day and the race went absolutely to plan,” said Dascombe, of the St. Leger triumph. “It was a thrilling result as it was my first Group 1 winner and something I'll always remember.  He's won two listed races over a mile and a half and he was just beaten about four lengths in the (Group 1) King George over a mile and a half.   As long as there's a nice pace in the race it won't bother him. He won't want a crawl.”

Trainer Chad Brown will saddle Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s homebred Big Blue Kitten (PP9, 3-1), a dual Grade 1 winner, for the Pattison.  The Kentucky-bred six-year-old son of Ramsey foundation sire Kitten’s Joy is the field’s leading money winner with almost $1.3 million.

Lightly-raced this season, with only three starts, Big Blue Kitten, who will be ridden for the first time by Joel Rosario, enters off a close fourth-place finish to Breeders’ Cup-bound Main Sequence in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational at Belmont Park on September 27.  Last year, he won four of eight outings, including the Grade 1 United Nations at Monmouth Park and Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga.  

About his most recent race, the Turf Classic, Brown said, “It was a little disappointing.  We really liked him going into the race.   There wasn’t a lot of pace in the race.  It wasn’t a bad effort but it wasn’t a winning effort, either.  But he came out of the race in great shape, he’s training well.”

  

The Ramseys, Brown and Rosario teamed to finish second to Joshua Tree in last year’s PCI with Hyper.

Sir Evelyn De Rothschild’s four-year-old Hillstar (PP7, 5-1), another British-bred, has been sent over by renowned conditioner Sir Michael Stoute, who won this race in 1996 with champion Singspiel, but also finished second twice (Shardari in 1986, Ask in 2007) and third once (Daliapour, 2000).

To be ridden by champion jockey Ryan Moore, who won the PCI last year aboard record-setting Joshua Tree, Hillstar enters off a Group 3 win at Newbury on September 20, his first victory in six starts this year, while also boasting four runner-up finishes.  Last year, the son of Danehill Dancer won the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes at Ascot.

“We’re really happy with this fellow,” said Stoute.  “He didn’t handle that track in Dubai, but in England he’s been ultra-consistent, he’s run some good solid races, won his last at Newbury, comes into the race in good shape and appears to have travelled well.   It was very slow ground (his last start) but he’s impervious to ground conditions, actually.   He goes on any ground.  I think a mile and a half is his best trip.  He (Brown Panther) beat me at Chester in May but that was an extended mile and five (furlongs).  He just outstayed me that day.   I would be hopeful I could beat him at a mile and a half.”

Midwest Thoroughbreds’ The Pizza Man (PP2, 6-1), ridden by Florent Geroux and trained by Roger Brueggemann, makes a return appearance to Woodbine after finishing fifth, as the favourite, in the Northern Dancer on September 14, his first loss of the season.   In three previous outings, the five-year-old Illinois-bred gelded son of turf champion English Channel won the American St. Leger, Grade 3 Stars and Stripes and the restricted Black Tie Affair, all stakes at Arlington Park in Chicago.

Team Block’s Suntracer (PP3, 12-1), another six-year-old son of Kitten’s Joy, has won seven of a race-high 35 career starts, including his latest, the Group 3 Kentucky Turf Cup at Kentucky Downs on September 13.  Trained by Chris Block and ridden by Carlos Marquez Jr., the Illinois homebred Suntracer has earned almost $800,000.

Another entrant coming out of the Kentucky Turf Cup is third place finisher War Dancer (PP6, 12-1), a four-year-old son of War Front, trained by Ken McPeek.   Owned by Diamond M Stable and to be ridden by Luis Contreras, Kentucky-bred War Dancer has won four of 16 starts and earned over $640,000, with stakes wins in the Grade 3 Louisville this year and Grade 2 Virginia Derby last year.

One of two Canadian-breds in the race is John Oxley’s Dynamic Sky (PP5, 15-1), trained by Mark Casse and ridden by Patrick Husbands.   Since 1958, when the International became a turf race, five different Canadian-breds have won, the latest being Thornfield in 1999.   The others were Chief Bearhart (1997), Sky Classic (1991), He’s a Smoothie (1967) and George Royal twice (1965 and 1966).

Dynamic Sky, a four-year-old son of Sky Mesa, has won four of 18 lifetime starts and over $700,000, was third in last year’s Queen’s Plate and enters off a close second place finish in the Grade 1 Northern Dancer, September 14 at Woodbine, his best effort yet in four turf appearances.  Six-time Sovereign Award winner Casse’s only previous International entrant, Seaside Retreat, finished fourth in 2008 while Husbands just missed winning the race in 2000 aboard Williams News, finishing a nose behind Mutafaweq.

Bortolazzo Stable’s Pyrite Mountain (PP8, 12-1), trained by Todd Pletcher, returns to Woodbine after being sold and campaigned in the United States in his first three outings this year, all second place finishes, two noses and a head away from a perfect 2014 record.  The four-year-old Canadian-bred son of Silent Name is a two-time winner in 13 career starts, and finished seventh in last year’s Queen’s Plate.  He enters off a tough nose loss to Pattison rival Suntracer in the Kentucky Turf Cup on September 13.  Jamie Spencer, who last month won the Ricoh Woodbine Mile aboard Trade Storm, has been named to ride.

Copper Water Thoroughbred’s Reporting Star (PP10, 20-1), trained by Pat Parente and ridden by Justin Stein, comes in off a third-place finish in the contentious Northern Dancer, a little over a length behind runner-up and Pattison rival Dynamic Sky after setting the pace in the mile and one-half contest.

The four-year-old Florida-bred gelded son of Circular Quay, after going winless in eight starts in 2013, has won three of six this year for his British Columbia owner Chad Joe and is stakes-placed twice on the turf.

 

Trainer Dale Romans will send out Donegal Racing’s O’Prado Ole (PP1, 20-1), a four-year-old Kentucky-bred son of English Channel.  Although winless in six starts this year, the chestnut did finish second to The Pizza Man in the Stars and Stripes and was most recently fourth to Suntracer in the Kentucky Turf Cup.   Channing Hill rides.

The E.P. Taylor Stakes will go postward as the 10th race at 5:41 pm (ET) and has drawn a field of eight, headed by the 7-5 morning line choice, Irish-bred Just The Judge, who was most recently third to Euro Charline and Stephanie’s Kitten in the Grade 1 Beverly D at Arlington on August 16.   Representing the home side is Sam-Son Farm’s homebred Deceptive Vision, winner of the Grade 2 Canadian at Woodbine in September, the 2-1 second choice.

The Nearctic, the 8th race on the 11-race card going postward at 4:37 p.m., drew 10, topped by recent Bold Venture Stakes winner Calgary Cat, British-bred Caspar Netscher, a multiple Group winner in England and Connaught Cup winner Excaper.

Since 1958, U.S.-breds have captured 27 editions of the International, followed by Irish-breds (13) and British-breds (seven). The stakes record for the mile and one-half over the E.P. Taylor Turf Course is 2:25 3/5 seconds, set by Juddmonte Farms' Raintrap in 1994.  

The largest winning margin still belongs to the incomparable Secretariat, when 'Big Red' coasted home by six and one-half lengths in his farewell appearance in 1973.  He is also the shortest-priced winner in history, paying $2.40.  Favourites have won the International 21 of 56 times (37.5%) since 1958, the last to do so being Champs Elysees, at 5-2 in 2009 and before him, Sulamani, the 4-5 choice in 2004.