Wet Your Whistle earns Grade 1 opportunity in Woodbine's Highlander

Wet Your Whistle, a 4-year-old son of Stroll, struts into Woodbine's Grade 1, $300,000 Highlander Stakes in excellent form.

Trained by Michael Trombetta, the dark bay is at the top of his game heading into Saturday's six-furlong turf race on the Queen's Plate undercard.

“He’s training very well,” said Trombetta, who has his horse on a three-race win streak, including a monster performance in the Get Serious Stakes at Monmouth Park in May. “His first two races back this season have been so good that we figured we’ll take a shot here.”

Breaking his maiden at first asking last July at Laurel Park, David Palmer's Wet Your Whistle went a long time between drinks, winning his last race of 2018 after six starts. That came at Woodbine in an 8 ¼-length romp at seven furlongs on the Toronto main track.

In his return to the races this April, a 5 ½-furlong test on the Laurel Park turf, Wet Your Whistle, the 5-2 second choice on the tote board, rallied to win by three lengths over firm going.

But it was the effort in the Get Serious that led Trombetta to try the Grade 1 level.

“We put him away on a really good note last year,” the trainer said. “We freshened him up and when he came back in the allowance race at Laurel, it was really good. Then the turf race back at Monmouth – that was a really good race.

“He won in good fashion and he was drawing away a little bit at the end, which is something you’d really like to see in those races and he did it. He looks like he’ll do either surface really well. We’ll see where he takes us.”

Part of stellar stakes-stacked card of racing on Saturday, the Highlander drew nine horses vying for the six-figure first prize.

Caribou Club, a multiple graded stakes winner, took last year’s Connaught Cup (G2) at Woodbine. Detroit Steel, a son of Fastnet Rock, has eight in-the-money finishes from 25 starts. Sam-Son Farm’s El Tormenta heads into the Highlander off a win in this year’s Connaught Cup. Extravagant Kid, a graded stakes placed 10-time winner, has finished second in the past two Jacques Cartier Stakes. Tricks to Doo sports seven top-three finishes from 10 starts, including three wins. White Flag shows five wins, two seconds and three thirds from 14 starts. Supplement Souper Smart has two wins and two seconds from seven starts for Live Oak Plantation. Yorkton, a six-time winner and earner of more than $550,000 for Chiefswood Stable, rounds out the field.

The Highlander Stakes was first run in 1954. Six horses have won the race twice since 1976 with Sam-Son Farm winning it six times as an owner and both jockey Todd Kabel and trainer Lou Cavalaris winning it four times each.

Last year, Virginia-bred Long On Value won the Highlander by a neck.

The Highlander is race nine on the 13-race Queen's Plate card.

FIELD FOR THE $300,000 HIGHLANDER

POST – HORSE – JOCKEY – TRAINER

1 – Extravagant Kid – Rafael Hernandez – Brendan Walsh

2 – Caribou Club – Drayden Van Dyke – Tom Proctor

3 – El Tormenta – Luis Contreras – Gail Cox

4 – Souper Smart – Eurico Rosa Da Silva – Mark Casse

5 – Detroit Steel – Justin Stein – Clint Abraham

6 – Tricks to Doo – Junior Alvarado – Arnaud Delacour

7 – Wet Your Whistle – Alex Cintron – Michael Trombetta

8 – White Flag – Javier Castellano – Christopher Clement

9 – Yorkton – Jesse Campbell – Stuart Simon