Attard, Casse keeping options open in Natalma, Summer stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Stakes winner Airosa is one of several cross-entered in the Grade 1 Natalma for fillies and the Grade 1 Summer on Saturday’s Woodbine Mile undercard. Both are Lasix-free, $500,000 mile turf races for 2-year-olds that are Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In qualifiers.

Airosa graduated in her second start in front-running style when switching from Tapeta to turf. She rallied inside from fourth to beat a good group of fillies most recently in the 6 1/2-furlong Catch a Glimpse Stakes on the main turf.

“I was always pretty high on her,” trainer Kevin Attard said. “I think she’s a special horse. I like the fact that she rated [in the Catch a Glimpse] and came up the inside, which is a little challenging for a young horse. She handled that well. Her pedigree suggests going a mile shouldn’t be an issue. We’re hopeful that she can earn a berth to the Breeders’ Cup.”

Attard also entered Bolt Enoree in both races. She handed probable Summer favorite My Boy Prince his only loss when winning her debut, after which she finished fourth in the My Dear Stakes and fifth in the Catch a Glimpse.

Trainer Mark Casse cross-entered Golden Canary and has Dancing Duchess for the Natalma. They ran one-two against the boys in the 6 1/2-furlong Soaring Free Stakes here Aug. 20.

“We never have a problem running the girls against the boys,” Casse said. “We were confident. I felt pretty good about them, and they both showed up.”

Casse also cross-entered Go With Gusto, who was disqualified from first when debuting in a one-mile maiden special on the inner turf here Aug. 13.

Casse is quite high on Natalma entrant Ready to Jam, an impressive second-out winner who is coming off a troubled second in the Catch a Glimpse.

“I came away from the race thinking that we probably ran the best horse – it just didn’t work out that way,” Casse said. “She had a tough trip and probably should have won.”

English trainer Charlie Appleby has won two of the last five editions of the Natalma with a Godolphin runner. He sends out Godolphin’s Dazzling Star, who was fourth as the favorite in her last race, the Group 3 Princess Margaret at Ascot.

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Casse was elated with My Boy Prince’s 14-length score off a two-month layoff in the restricted Simcoe Stakes here Aug. 27 on the Tapeta, over which the son of Cairo Prince has made all three of his starts.

“I told [owner Gary Barber] after the race that’s the most excited I’ve been since Wonder Wheel won,” Casse said. “He had missed some time. He’d only had two breezes in a period of about two months, and he ran a 95 Beyer and a 110 on the Timeform. Most of the Cairo Princes love the grass.”

My Boy Prince was the $115,000 sale topper at the 2022 Canadian premier yearling sale.

“We liked him a lot in Ocala this winter,” Casse recalled. “He wasn’t really focused his first race, but he was focused the second race.”

Casse also sends out debut winner King of the Track and maiden Souper Attentive in the Summer.

The Christophe Clement-trained Carson’s Run ships in from New York for the Summer off a runner-up placing in the Grade 3 With Anticipation on the Saratoga sod. Clement also is running Saratoga maiden winner Ozara in the Natalma.

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown entered French import Dea Matrona in the Natalma.

Vigil Stakes

The crack 3-year-old Patches O’Houlihan will try to beat older rivals again going six furlongs on the Tapeta in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Vigil Stakes.

Conditioned by Robert Tiller, the trainer of the great Pink Lloyd, Patches O’Houlihan has won all five of his outings this year, including a trio of stakes. When moving up from Ontario-sired company to the Grade 3 Bold Venture most recently, he darted out to a clear lead and then turned back a stretch challenge from Last American Exit to prevail while earning his second straight 93 Beyer Speed Figure.

Tiller said Patches O’Houlihan, a Frank DiGiulio Jr. homebred, remains in peak form and doesn’t need the lead to get the job done.

“He’s going into it as good as I can get him,” Tiller explained. “If somebody else wants the lead, they can have it, but if we break good, we’re going to be there. He’s got natural speed.”

The shippers in the eight-horse field are My Buddy B and Outlaw Kid.

Based in Kentucky with trainer Paulo Lobo, My Buddy B is coming off back-to-back front-running scores in allowance company on the dirt at Belterra and Mountaineer. He notched his debut in spring 2022 at Turfway, the only time he raced on Tapeta.

“He’s run extremely well this year and we are very happy with him,” Lobo said. “When he wins, he wins easily. Especially, the last two races – he got very good numbers.”

Saratoga-based Outlaw Kid is making his first synthetic-track start off a victory here in the Vice Regent Stakes, a five-furlong inner turf dash for Ontario-breds. George Weaver trains the 4-year-old.

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