Bear’s Future gets another chance in Display

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Reade Baker, who won the 2009 Display Stakes with Bear’s Hard Ten, will send out Bear’s Future and Moonshine Mullin in Sunday’s Display, a 1 1/16-mile event for 2-year-olds at Woodbine Racetrack

Bear’s Future was the leader of the local 2-year-old division late in the summer. A son of freshman sire Rockport Harbor, Bear’s Future crushed a modest field in his seven-furlong debut Aug. 13. A month later, he took the seven-furlong Swynford Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths, with a Beyer Speed Figure of 75.

Bear’s Future was favored in the Grade 3 Grey Stakes Oct. 10. He was softened up in a front-end battle in that 1 1/16-mile route, and wound up sixth behind his stablemate Rockin Heat and the victorious Blue Laser.

“I don’t like him on the lead, and I don’t like him head-and-head, and he was both,” Baker said. “He had to knock Rockin Heat off stride to get there. That was a little puzzling.”

Baker said he anticipates a less-aggressive approach by Bear’s Future on Sunday.

“I’m taking the blinkers off, so he doesn’t get in a speed duel,” Baker said. “I think he’s a very talented horse. Right from the start, he showed a ton of run. He’s had some brilliant works. I was more than a little disappointed when he didn’t win his last race. I thought at that point we were Breeders’ Cup bound. There’s a question in the back of your mind if he’s a two-turn horse, but he looks like one, and he’s bred like a two-turn horse.”

Moonshine Mullin has made both of his starts on the grass in maiden special company. He graduated over a mile Oct. 17, earning a 68 Beyer.

“Those were good races he was in,” Baker said. “He’s a big, healthy, strong horse. It looks like the farther with him, the better. He’s worked very well.”

Trainer Mark Casse entered Bluegrass Dreamer and Sardonicus, who are both exiting a maiden special tally around two turns.

Bluegrass Dreamer received a 69 Beyer when he graduated third time out Oct. 11. A son of freshman sire Bluegrass Cat, Bluegrass Dreamer is a half-brother to Group 1 winner Dr Fong.

Tiz Blessed, based at Belmont with trainer Chad Brown, finished fourth among a trio of next-out winners in the Sept. 25 Garden State Stakes at Monmouth.