Woodbine: Roscar leads Chiefswood trifecta in Breeders’

Roscar, Saccharine and Side Street gave Chiefswood Stables a homebred trifecta in the US$293,374 Breeders’ Stakes at Woodbine, the final jewel in the 2024 Canadian Triple Crown.

Thor’s Cause, 4-5 favorite Hurricane Clair and Side Street scrapped over the early lead in the 1 1/2-mile marathon over the turf on a picture-perfect fall day as Justin Stein, aboard Roscar, tucked the son of Oscar Performance into fourth of seven.

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It was seventh-place King’s Plate finisher Thor’s Cause who emerged on the front end and took her six rivals through a tepid opening quarter-mile in 25.08 seconds followed by Hurricane Clair, Side Street and Roscar.

The lead duo continued their tussle that saw Thor’s Cause a head in front through a half-mile in 52.13 seconds. Stein had Roscar well within range of the leaders, comfortably positioned in third after a mile.

Heading into the final turn, a host of hopefuls burst onto the scene, including Roscar, who burst through along the rail to seize command in early stretch.

From there it was the Chiefswood show, as Roscar dug in along the rail, while Saccharine picked up the pursuit of his stablemate to the outside as did Side Street.

Roscar confidently fended off Rachel Halden-trained stablemate Saccharine by 1 1/2 lengths for the victory with a game Side Street, trained by 2023 Breeders’ winner Layne Giliforte, a farther three lengths back in third. King Rosso was fourth.

The final time over good going was 2:34.72, the slowest Breeders’ Stakes since 2011 and the 14th slowest since the current 1 1/2-mile distance was established in 1957 for the stakes restricted to Canada-bred 3-year-olds.

Thor’s Cause, Jokestar and Hurricane Clair rounded out the order of finish.

“We really liked this horse today,” said Stein, who has a career Triple Crown having won the 2012 Queen’s Plate and the 2022 and 2023 Prince of Wales. “He’s been showing a lot of a lot of talent, and we kind of thought he’d be sharp early leaving the gate due to being off for seven weeks. And it took a minute to settle him in to stride, and he was literally towing me in behind traffic, just waiting for his chance to turn free and then he did the rest.

“I’ve been very fortunate, very blessed, to have the support from the trainers and owners at Woodbine to ride the horses to get the job done.”

Halden was full of praise for her duo.

“We were hopeful,” she said. “Obviously, (Roscar) had a bit of a mixed-up year, and we haven't been able to get into a smooth rhythm with him. The Plate was on the radar to begin with, but after the Queenston, then it kind of threw us off path a little bit, and then we had to wait, aim for this race. So it’s just great. It’s so deserving for the owners, everybody involved. When you kind of give up the opportunity of other races to wait for this, when it works out, it’s just really, really great.

“She (Saccharine) has just barely done anything wrong all year outside of win. You know she’s going to get the distance. I’m so proud of her as well today. She ran great again.”

The Breeders’ victory was the first stakes win for Roscar, now 7: 2-0-2. The bay gelding, second choice on the toteboard, paid $8.50 to win.

Chiefswood also won the 2018 Breeders’ with Neepawa.

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