Biofuel's Woodbine appearances figure to be rare this year

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Biofuel was honored here on April 1 as Canada’s Horse of the Year and outstanding 3-year-old filly for 2010. But the chances of Biofuel repeating as a Sovereign Award winner are slim, as the stakes program here for older fillies and mares at Woodbine is very light in two-turn races on the main track.

“Now that she’s been named Horse of the Year, our next two goals will be try to get her to win a Grade 1 and try to win at the Breeders’ Cup,” said Reade Baker, who conditions the homebred Biofuel for Kentucky-based owner Brereton C. Jones. “We were hoping to run her at least three times in Ontario, to make her eligible for the Sovereigns again. But there are only two races in the Woodbine stakes book for her.”

The Grade 3, $150,000 Ontario Matron, a 1 1/16-mile race on July 24, looms as the only suitable stakes spot for Biofuel on the regular stakes schedule. The other would be the $175,000 Maple Leaf, but that race goes at 1 1/4 miles on Nov. 5, one day after the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic.

Biofuel was 4 for 4 here last year, concluding her campaign with a victory in the Grade 3 Selene on Sept. 26.With Baker and Jones electing not to proceed to the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic, Biofuel was sent to the owner’s Airdrie Farm for a holiday. The filly had a six-week break before joining Baker at Palm Meadows at the beginning of January and starting back jogging in the middle of that month.

“She just had her first breeze on March 28,” said Baker, who sent out Biofuel for an easy three furlongs in 37.60 over the Palm Meadows main track. “We’ll wait until she’s close to being ready, then we’ll start looking for a race for her.”

Biofuel checked back into Woodbine on March 31, and her first major target could be the July 16 Delaware Handicap, a 1 1/4-mile race for fillies and mares that offers Grade 2 status and a purse of $750,000.

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