Woodbine: 2 stakes add class to Canadian International undercard

Nine fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, will vie for top spot in the Grade 2, $200,000 Dance Smartly Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile test over the inner turf, Saturday at Woodbine. 

Breath Away, a multiple graded-stakes placed mare for Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, Steven Rocco and Marc Levine, will make her first appearance in Canada when she goes postward in the Dance Smartly, which awards the winner an automatic invitation to the Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf Invitational Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream in January.

Click here for Woodbine entries and results.

Under the tutelage of multiple graded stakes winner Miguel Clément, the 6-year-old daughter of Bated Breath out of the Nayef mare Darling Grace has fashioned an 18: 4-6-3 mark along with $417,885 in purse earnings.

Bred by Highgate Stud, Breath Away arrives at her latest test off an impressive effort in the Violet Stakes on Aug. 30 at Monmouth.

Sent off as the slight 4-5 choice in the field of six, the dark bay rallied to take the 1 1/16-mile turf event by a half-length.

“She has been a little unlucky, in the sense that kept running very good races and obtaining plenty of black type, but she was able to punch through for us in that last race,” said Clément.

Breath Away debuted with a trio of races at Gulfstream Park, which produced two wins and a second.

After taking her career bow at 7 1/2 furlongs over the turf on Jan. 8, 2023, she was second in her next start on Feb. 12. She then won the Sanibel Island Stakes, also at 7 1/2 furlongs on the grass, on April 1.

“She is training very forwardly,” said Clément. “I think she is a better filly in the fall than she is in the summer, so I think that will benefit her in this race. She has always been a consistent horse and we’re looking forward to seeing her race this weekend.” 

The Dance Smartly is named after the Sam-Son Farm superstar who went undefeated in 1991 while taking the Canada Triple Crown and becoming the first horse bred in Canada to win a Breeders' Cup race, the Distaff in 1991. She is a member of both the Canadian and American racing halls of fame. 

Bessarabian won the first edition in 1986.

Multiple Saratoga stakes winner Bring Theband Home leads seven in Nearctic

Speed merchant Bring Theband Home takes on six rivals in Saturday’s $250,000 Nearctic Stakes (G2) at Woodbine. 

Fresh off two stunning showings over the Saratoga turf, Bring Theband Home, a son of Into Mischief out of the Street Cry mare Tizatude, brings his top-shelf turf talents north for dual hall of fame trainer Mark Casse in the five-furlong inner turf course test for 3-year-olds and up.

After winning the Harvey Pack Stakes on July 4 at Saratoga when he travelled 5 1/2 furlongs in a blazing 59.90 seconds, only .10 second off the world record set by Cogburn over the same course in last year’s Jaipur Stakes (G1). Bring Theband Home then orchestrated another victory in the $300,000 Troy Stakes (G2) on Aug. 3 when he wired his six foes.

“He has been special so far this year,” said Casse, of the Live Oak Plantation homebred, who finished off the board in last year’s Nearctic. “Hopefully, we can keep that going.”

Sporting a record of 13: 6-3-1 along with $506,764 in purse earnings, the 5-year-old gelding will now look to win three consecutive races for the first time in his career.

“He’s fast – really fast,” said Casse. “Javier (jockey, Castellano) can seem to get the most out of him and we have seen that over the times they have been paired together.”

Patience has been the key for Bring Theband Home’s rise up the ranks, noted Casse, who sits atop the Woodbine trainer standings this year.

“He has started showing just what we thought he was early on,” said the 16-time Sovereign Award recipient as Canada’s champion trainer and winner of 630 stakes races. “We always thought he was a pretty good horse. In all honesty, he was a little bit disappointing, but he definitely loves Saratoga. We hope he loves the Woodbine inner turf as much. This has been our plan for a long time.

“When he won the Harvey Pack at Saratoga, and was so close to the world record, it showed us that he has the talent we always thought he had.”

The goal is to have Bring Theband Home head to California for the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 1. 

“That is what we are aiming for,” said Casse. “Obviously, he’s really come into himself, and we want to keep building off that. He’s been given a little break and freshened after his most recent race. He’s good and cranked and he’s ready to go.”

Casse won the 2017 edition of the Nearctic with 40-1 longshot Field of Courage.

The Strikin Viking, named after Manchester City's Norwegian superstar Erling Haaland, will look to strike gold in his first try on Canadian turf.

Bred in Ireland by Tally-Ho Stud, the bay son of Inns of Court out of the Shamardal mare Asmeen, was purchased for US$85,511 out of the Tattersalls Guineas breeze-up sale last May.

From the family of Azamour, The Strikin Viking made his first two starts for Middleham Park Racing and trainer Kevin Ryan, before the bay gelding, runner-up in the Railway Stakes (G2) was acquired by the Emir of Qatar's Wathnan Racing and joined Newmarket-based Qatari trainer Hamad Al-Jehani.

“He is a very good horse, especially when we saw him finish second in the Richmond (G2) last August at Goodwood,” Al-Jehani said. “We wanted to be very patient with him and give him all the time he needed to be at his best.”

The 3-year-old heads into the Nearctic off his first group-stakes victory.

On Aug. 31 The Strikin Viking won the Goldene Peitsche (G3). The six-furlong race at Baden-Baden is the most important short-distance race in Germany. For the victory, the connections received the most coveted prize in German horse racing, a gold-plated whip.

“He gave us a lot of confidence to send him to Germany after he was third in his race before that,” said Al-Jehani, of the six-furlong Queensferry Stakes on August 3 that saw The Strikin Viking miss top spot by a neck. “It was a very good race for him in Germany.”

The performance put the Nearctic on the radar.

“From there, we decided this race in Canada would suit him,” said Al-Jehani. “I think he will handle the track very well. We are happy to send more horses to Woodbine after what Haunted Dream (winner of the Singspiel Stakes (G3) on Sept. 6) achieved.”

Al-Jehani is hoping for a big effort from The Strikin Viking on Saturday.

“He is a nice-looking horse. He’s quite big. We knew from the beginning that he would be a nice horse at 3.”

Faleh Nasser Bughenaim will ride.