Attfield winning at home and on the road

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Roger Attfield saddled his first two winners of the Woodbine meet this past weekend, with Art of Almost and Flawless Bourbon both graduating from the maiden ranks. The Attfield stable has also found recent success in stakes away from Woodbine, as older horses Tiz a Slam and Ickymasho recorded stakes wins south of the border during Victoria Day weekend.

Tiz a Slam recorded the fourth graded stakes victory of his career in the Grade 3 Louisville Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 18. Ickymasho captured the Searching Stakes at Pimlico on the Preakness Stakes undercard the same day.

Both horses are now back at Woodbine and Attfield said he was figuring out where they would make their next starts, as options exist both at Woodbine and elsewhere. Locally, Tiz a Slam could be pointed towards either the Grade 3, $125,000 Singspiel Stakes on turf June 22, or the Grade 3, $125,000 Dominion Day Stakes on Tapeta on June 30, a race he won last year. Ickymasho, meanwhile, could make her next start in the Grade 2, $175,000 Dance Smartly Stakes on turf here on the Queen’s Plate undercard June 29.

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Tiz a Slam will be looking to build off a 2018 campaign that saw him win two graded stakes and be named a Sovereign Award finalist in two divisions. Attfield said he has seen some versatility lately from Tiz a Slam, despite his big frame and long stride.

“Tiz a Slam has become fully mature now,” he said. “He was always a big, awkward horse. He could never play and jump like a lot of 2-year-olds. He wasn’t athletic enough to do that. Consequently, in races when he ever had to check that big, long stride that he has, he could never really get going again. He’s getting a little bit more versatile now. We kept him nice and sound and healthy, and a lot of these horses are not fully mature until the end of their 4-year-old years anyway. He’s at his best right now for sure.”

Ickymasho also looks to have a big campaign ahead in her 7-year-old year. She had run second in back-to-back Grade 3 events at Gulfstream Park this winter before going on to win the Grade 3 Bewitch Stakes at Keeneland on April 26. She followed that up with her win at Pimlico, and Attfield said she’s in the best form she has been in since joining his stable.

“She’s always been pretty good, but she suddenly got to be a different horse,” he said. “She’s always been a hard-knocking filly, but she’s better now than she ever was. She’s just started to look better than she ever has and she’s been acting happy and well.”

Attfield said both horses are in light training and will pick up their respective programs once their next starts are decided.