Bold Script being pointed to Bison City Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine Oaks runner-up Bold Script will not run in the $1 million Queen’s Plate and will instead point to the $225,000 Bison City Stakes, trainer Stuart Simon said. The Bison City is for 3-year-old fillies foaled in Canada over 1 1/16 miles on Woodbine’s Tapeta on June 30.

Bold Script finished second by a neck to Desert Ride in the Woodbine Oaks following a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Selene Stakes on May 18.

“She took the race very, very well and has come out of it great,” Simon said.

The 2018 Canadian champion 2-year-old filly, Bold Script made her 3-year-old debut with a fifth in the Grade 2 Davona Dale Stakes at Gulfstream Park on March 2. Simon said she missed some training with a minor injury following the Davona Dale and was pointed to the Grade 3 Selene Stakes for her final prep for the Woodbine Oaks. However, in the Selene, Simon said, she hit her head leaving the gate.

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“I think she ran dazed, to be honest,” he said. “After she got back to the barn she had a bleeding nose, but it wasn’t from her lungs.

“I have had horses that have done that before and got beat 15 lengths. She got beat a length and three-quarters that day.”

Simon sprinters headed to turf

Simon sits second in the Woodbine trainer standings for stakes wins in the meet with four, with two fillies, Sister Peacock and Summery Sunday, combining to win all of them.

Simon said both fillies would run on turf for their next start. Sister Peacock will remain on turf following her victory in the William D. Graham Memorial Stakes to run in the Grade 3, $125,000 Ontario Colleen Stakes on July 20, while Summer Sunday will likely make her turf debut in the Grade 2, $175,000 Royal North Stakes the next day.

Sister Peacock gave Simon his first stakes win of the meet by capturing the Star Shoot Stakes on April 21, and followed that up with a win on turf in the William D. Graham Memorial on June 8.

Summer Sunday, meanwhile, has extended her unbeaten streak on the Woodbine Tapeta to six with a pair of stakes wins this season. She captured the Ballade Stakes on May 11, and recorded her first graded stakes victory in the Grade 3 Hendrie on June 9.

“You always knew she was a nice filly, but she’s just matured in the right ways and has come along nicely,” Simon said of Summer Sunday. “We gave her that time off [last season], and we gave her more time than they said she needed, but we really wanted to do right by her.”

Simon said Summer Sunday has not trained on turf, but added he was confident the daughter of Silent Name will run well on the grass.

“I always thought she would really handle it well, and I think she will,” he said. “I’m just quite certain she’s going to run on it. Synthetic is so close to turf in lots of ways too.”