Bison City winner Me and My Shadow back in best form for Wonder Where
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A rejuvenated Me and My Shadow will experiment on the grass going 1 1/4 miles at Woodbine in Sunday’s $250,000 Wonder Where Stakes, the anchor leg of the Canadian Triple Tiara for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.
Trained by Mark Casse for D. J. Stable, Me and My Shadow looked like a serious prospect when earning her diploma by four lengths here on debut in May of last year. She subsequently ran fourth in the Grade 3 Schuylerville at Saratoga and then placed in two stakes here before getting the winter off.
Me and My Shadow was slow to come around this year before ending up fourth after a wide trip from post 14 in the Woodbine Oaks. She took the Bison City Stakes decisively most recently under Emma-Jayne Wilson.
“She trained very aggressively last year and then we took her to Saratoga,” Casse recalled. “She didn’t come out of Saratoga the same as she went into it. In the fall, I felt like she wasn’t really there [mentally]. Even this past winter, she just didn’t show me the enthusiasm that she had the previous spring.
“When she got back to Toronto, she was just going through the motions, but after the Oaks, she started training like she used to. I thought her Bison City was very good. She was much the best. She’s trained really well into this race. I don’t think the distance matters to her.”
Me and My Shadow’s dam, Silhouette, was unplaced on the grass. Her hot sire, Violence, has sired two turf stakes winners of late, including Toronto Cup winner Love to Shop.
Among the others in the eight-horse field are Wickenheiser and Tito’s Calling.
Wickenheiser closed for second in the Oaks before a dull 11th-place finish against the boys in the King’s Plate, a performance for which trainer Kevin Attard had no excuse.
“It was very puzzling,” Attard said. “I thought she was going into the race in good order, and I expected a big performance. She was very flat.”
Attard believes the Wonder Where is a good spot for the daughter of Lemon Drop Kid, who’s a full sister to Breeders’ Stakes victor Belichick.
“It should be right up her wheelhouse,” Attard predicted. “She’s bred for the turf and broke her maiden on the turf. The distance shouldn’t be an issue.”
The Mike DePaulo-trained Tito’s Calling checked in second in the 1 1/16-mile Bison City after finishing up the track in the 1 1/8-mile Oaks.
◗ Canadiansweetheart shoots for her second stakes victory in a row in the $100,000 Zadracarata, a five-furlong inner turf dash for Ontario-bred fillies and mares.
A $25,000 claim by owner Chris Manohar and trainer Renico Lafond on May 5, Canadiansweetheart has improved with each subsequent race since ending up seventh in the Fury Stakes on June 10. The 3-year-old won the six-furlong Sweet Briar Too Stakes on the main turf at 36-1 under Leo Salles on Aug. 19.
Lafond said Canadiansweetheart has matured under his guidance.
“When I first got her, she was very, very hyper,” Lafond said. “I had to get to relax a little bit. I accomplished that part, getting her to learn to relax and chill. I thought she would go longer, but she gets tired.”
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