Woodbine: Red Eagle takes his speed to the turf

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Jockeys Eurico Da Silva and Patrick Husbands were tied for the most turf wins at the Woodbine meet with 13 apiece heading into this week. They both have a mount in Friday’s third race, a first-level allowance on the grass.

Da Silva will ride Red Eagle, who could be the dominant front-runner in the six-furlong feature. Following a lucrative 2011 campaign under the guidance of trainer Abraham Katryan, Red Eagle is winless in four starts this year, although several of those performances were solid.

Red Eagle was a fading fourth behind the talented Gypsy Ring and Executive Five in the restricted Debut Stakes opening day. He subsequently ran second to a peaking Executive Five in an allowance, and was fourth behind him and victorious Gypsy Ring in the May 21 New Providence Stakes.

Most recently, Red Eagle ran evenly for third after showing less speed than usual in a fast-paced allowance. He has never started on the grass, but he breezed a bullet half-mile over the turf training course June 29.

Husbands has the mount on the Mark Casse-trained Glowing Monarch, who defeated two next-out allowance winners when second after setting a slow pace in a seven-furlong allowance June 13. The winner, Jomelo, returned to finish fourth in the Charlie Barley Stakes.

Glowing Monarch seems poised to run the race of his life in his third race following a long layoff.

Lemon View also got away with setting moderate fractions in his last race, wiring $40,000 nonwinners-ofthree claimers with a career-high 84 Beyer Figure.

Lemon View’s penultimate race was arguably his best. Over a speed-favoring course, he made up some ground from fourth to end up second to a rival who came back to lose a nail-biter for $50,000.

Low-level claimer Another Kitten is another entrant with speed. He has never faced this tough a field, and his lone turf race wasn’t anything to write home about.

Two Oh One wasn’t an impact player in nonwinners-of-two Ontario-sired allowance company on the Polytrack this year. He checked in second in one of two turf attempts, which were both in the maiden-special ranks.

Evolution Rocks is by one of the leading turf sires in North America, City Zip, but none of his dam’s four turf starters were victorious. His Polytrack form is spotty, and he’s taking the blinkers off.