Angelou fits well in seasonal debut
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Moira’s recent workmate Angelou makes her season debut in Friday’s featured fifth race, a conditioned allowance with a $50,000 claiming option on a sparse seven-race card at Woodbine.
Trained by Kevin Attard for Blue Heaven Farm, Angelou displayed flashes of brilliance during her five-race campaign in 2022. Following a 10-month layoff in May of that year, she won a maiden race by 10 1/4 lengths going the 1 1/16-mile distance of Friday’s headliner. She doubled up in a July 2 allowance route while earning her second straight Beyer Speed Figure in the low 80s.
Switching to the turf Aug. 21, Angelou faded to eighth after setting the pace in the Grade 2 Canadian. Off another break on Nov. 12, she ran second to Il Malocchio in the Grade 3 Maple Leaf over 1 1/4 miles on the Tapeta, for which she got an 89 Beyer while boosting her value significantly. She failed to stay 1 1/2 miles on Dec. 4 in the Grade 3 Valedictory, a race against the boys that you can draw a line through.
Luis Contreras retains the mount on 5-year-old Angelou, a daughter of elite sire Curlin and Canadian champion Roxy Gap. Last Saturday, she breezed five-eighths in 1:01.40 as the leader with reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Moira, who went in 1:01 after a leisurely opening three-eighths.
Attard also entered Silver Magnatized, the 125-pound highweight under Rafael Hernandez.
Silver Magnatized won three in a row late last summer, capped by a Sept. 30 race in which she was claimed for $50,000 in an allowance/optional claimer. She had a wide trip when a trailing seventh in her lone winter excursion, a $25,000 starter allowance on the Gulfstream Park grass in February.
Silver Magnatized rallied four wide from third to win a fast-paced allowance route on the Tapeta with a career-high 80 Beyer here May 7. Attard has posted a 28-percent strike rate with last-out winners in synthetic routes during the last five years, with a return on investment of $2.70.
Ephrata won at the first allowance condition going 1 1/8 miles with an 80 Beyer the last time she saw action here in November. The daughter of Ghostzapper has been working on a regular schedule and retains leading rider Kazushi Kimura, who is 3 for 8 at the meet for trainer Josie Carroll.
Tempereya wound up third behind Ephrata on Nov. 19 before clearing the first allowance condition in a dead heat with Who Says on Dec. 10. She was a non-threatening fifth in her May 12 comeback going seven-eighths, which should set her up for the stretchout to a more suitable distance. Apprentice Amanda Vandermeersch has the call.
Who Says is returning from a six-month layoff under Leo Salles, who guided her to victory in a $25,000 conditioned claimer in October.
Buttered Toast rounds out the six-horse field.
Post time is 1:10 p.m.
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