Are You Kidding Me seeks Autumn Stakes repeat

Are You Kidding Me won last year’s Grade 2, $200,000 Autumn Stakes on his way to becoming Canada’s champion older male of 2015, and a repeat win in the Autumn on Nov. 6 at Woodbine would bolster his case for another Sovereign Award.

Are You Kidding Me, a 6-year-old trained by Roger Attfield, most recently won the Grade 3 Durham Cup on Sept. 24. Prior to that, he finished second in back-to-back starts in the Grade 2 Sky Classic Stakes and the Grade 3 Seagram Cup and won the Grade 2 Eclipse Stakes on May 28.

A good result in the Autumn could give Are You Kidding Me a second consecutive older-male championship. Attfield said Are You Kidding Me sustained some minor bruising since his win in the Durham Cup but otherwise is in good order.

“He’s been doing well,” Attfield said. “He had a little bit of a bruise for a few days, which I don’t think is going to make any difference to our schedule. I’m very pleased with him.”

Are You Kidding Me was back on the work tab Sunday for the first time since the Durham Cup and breezed five furlongs in 59.00 seconds over the Tapeta.

A solid field likely will meet Are You Kidding Me in the Autumn. Nominations for the race were released Friday and include Grade 3 Dominion Stakes winner Melmich, Seagram Cup winner Breaking Lucky, and the Mark Casse-trained Oakton and Royal Son.

Royal Son recorded his second win of the Woodbine meet in an allowance race over 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta on Oct. 14.

“I thought his last race was game,” Casse said. “He really enjoys the synthetic, and he’s a tough horse.”

Casse said he’s still waiting to see Royal Son run to his full potential.

“He trains like a very good horse,” he said. “I think he’s run so far like a good horse but not a very good horse. I’m still waiting to see him show even more. I think he still has the possibility to be even better than you’ve seen so far.”