Artemus Citylimits gives trainer Cheung first stakes victory with Vice Regent
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The venerable 9-year-old Artemus Citylimits won the $150,000 Vice Regent for the second year in a row on Sunday at Woodbine while giving trainer Audrey Cheung her first stakes victory.
Artemus Citylimits went straight to the front under Eswan Flores and maintained a three-quarter-length lead over Mister Blue through the turn of the five-furlong inner turf dash.
Light the Lamp made a wide bid into contention entering the stretch, but Artemus Citylimits kept on going to prevail by 1 3/4 lengths, in a time of :56.02 over the firm ground.
The favored Saratoga shipper Outlaw Kid, a two-time winner of the Vice Regent, rallied outside for second. Light the Lamp finished another neck back in third, and Dark Screen checked in fourth in the six-horse field of Ontario-breds.
“This is the type of horse who doesn’t like to be bothered,” Flores said. “He’s a professional. He’s been here a while. He’s a pretty cool horse. Today, he did get a little bit wound up going to the gate, but he’s classy - he does his thing. I just get out of his way and the rest he does it.”
Woodbine has barred 10-year-olds from competition, so this will be Artemus Citylimit’s last year racing here, unless there’s a rule change in his favor.
“He does not act like a 9-year-old,” Cheung said. “He’s not that easy to ride in the morning. We tried to make sure he was extra sharp coming into this race. Eswan gave him a great ride. We wanted to be on the lead. We were worried about (Mister Blue), but I told Eswan to ride your race and just let him run.”
Artemus Citylimits, who won last year’s Vice Regent for trainer Marty Drexler, returned $7.10. The son of Temple City collected $90,000 for owner Dwight Baron.
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