Apprehend returns from layoff as favorite in Century Mile Handicap
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Apprehend is one of Canada’s top older horses, and when he launches his 6-year-old season Saturday night, it will be as the 125-pound highweight in the $75,000 Century Mile Handicap. The race, which is for 3-year-olds and up over one mile and 70 yards, shares a card with the $50,000 R.K. Red Smith Handicap, which drew 11-time stakes winner Big Hug.
Apprehend is part of a field of nine. He is invading from British Columbia, where he was the 2024 older horse of the year at Hastings Racecourse. Apprehend was 4 for 5 last season, closing out his campaign with four straight wins, including the Grade 3 British Columbia Premier’s Handicap. The start in the Century Mile will be his first since October for owner Peter Redekop and trainer Barbara Heads.
“He got a break after last year and, actually, there was a thought to retire him to stud,” Heads said. “But with the time off, and he wintered really well, Mr. Redekop thought he’d put him back in training and see how it went, and we did that.”
Apprehend has been working sharply for his return. Among his moves was a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.80 seconds on June 28 at Hastings.
“He’s going into the race really good,” said Heads.
Apprehend’s current streak includes a win in a mile allowance last August at Century Mile. Earlier in his career, he won a Santa Anita allowance with a Beyer Speed Figure of 107.
“He’s a lovely horse,” Heads said of the son of Arrogate and the multiple stakes-winning mare Hero’s Amor. “He’s classy, super athletic, and easy to deal with, especially for being a colt. And he’s obviously very well bred.”
Amadeo Perez has the mount on Apprehend from post 9 on Saturday.
“You always worry about them being a little sharp for their first race of the year,” Heads said. “Amadeo rode the horse the whole time last year and knows him really well, and he’s worked him right up to this race. I just don’t like interfering too much. The nine-hole is definitely a factor, being on the outside, so the idea is not to get hung out. But I just leave it up to Amadeo [to] just play it on the break and let the horse settle and find his comfortable spot.”
Apprehend was to have made the approximately 14-hour trip from British Columbia to Alberta with stablemate Sunblaze. She will be looking for her third straight win when she starts as the possible second choice in the R.K. Red Smith, a 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares 3 years old and up.
“She really came to herself going long,” Heads said Thursday. “She really liked the distance, which we kind of expected her to, just the way she was training and running. So that’s why the decision was made to run her out there, because the race was a mile and an eighth.”
Perez has the mount from the rail for the estate of R.J. and Lois Bennett.
Big Hug will start from post 3 off a stakes win at Century Mile. She is highweighted at 126 pounds, while Sunblaze will carry 122.
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