Are You Kidding Me continues Attfield's roll

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Roger Attfield has been on a roll to start the 2018 Woodbine meet, recording six wins and three-runner up finishes from his first 14 starters.

“We just got lucky and got the right races at the right time,” Attfield said. “It’s been nice for sure. The horses are all doing well, so hopefully we can continue on that.”

A pair of those victories have come from 8-year-old Are You Kidding Me, who won the Grade 2 Eclipse Stakes for the third time in his career this past Saturday. Are You Kidding Me is now 2 for 2 in 2018, and will be pointed toward the Grade 3, $125,000 Dominion Day Stakes over 1 1/4-miles on Tapeta at Woodbine on July 1.

“It’s sort of the way we’ve gone before with him,” Attfield said. “He doesn’t have to be shipping around all over the place.”

Are You Kidding Me had his 2017 campaign cut short due to a quarter crack following his runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Seagram Cup Stakes last August. Attfield said he opted not to race Are You Kidding Me over the winter, and was pleased with the way he was training at Payson Park Training Center in Florida.

“We were going to run at Keeneland, but that got messed up because of the weather,” Attfield said. “He arrived back here in as good of shape as he’s ever been.”

Attfield also had Final Copy and Danish Dynaformer run first and second in Friday’s sixth race, an allowance prep for the Grade 3, $125,000 Singspiel Stakes. Traditionally run on the Queen’s Plate undercard, the Singspiel this year will be run a week earlier, on June 23, over 1 1/2 miles on the Woodbine turf course.

Attfield said both Final Copy and Danish Dynaformer would continue on to the Singspiel, giving him two strong runners in search of his eighth victory in the race. Attfield noted that the pace dynamics of the Singspiel prep played a part in Final Copy’s victory over his stablemate.

“It was a funny race,” he said. “Final Copy was the only pace in the field and we were able to slow everybody down, which didn’t help Danish Dynaformer’s style, but it helped Final Copy. We got the win with one of them, anyway. They both came out of the race very well. The whole idea was to go from there to the Singspiel, so that’s what we will be doing.”

While Danish Dynaformer will look to win the Singspiel for the second time, he may be challenged again by Final Copy, who is showing an affinity for the Woodbine turf. Final Copy has recorded four wins in five stakes on the Woodbine turf course, while also recording a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Stakes in 2017.

“It would appear that he’s a true-blue Canadian,” Attfield said of Final Copy. “He likes Canada and certainly his form here has been very good.”