Cairo Caper closes wide to win Soaring Free Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Cairo Caper rallied outside to notch his stakes debut under Jose Campos in Friday’s $152,100 Soaring Free for 2-year-olds on the King’s Plate undercard at Woodbine.

The heavily favored Mensa made the early lead in the 6 1/2-furlong turf sprint and was pressed by stablemate Dream On through honest fractions.

Cairo Caper commenced a three-wide bid from 2 1/2 lengths back on the turn and then wore down Dream On in the final furlong to prevail three-quarters of length in a time of 1:16.25 over the good ground.

Cairo Caper ($12.40) banked $90,000 for owner William Thompson Jr. Nathan Squires trains the son of Cairo Prince and also conditioned 2022 Canadian champion 2-year-old filly Cairo Consort for Thompson. That daughter of Cairo Prince finished third in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Keeneland.

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“I thought I had a good chance going in,” Squires said. “He’d trained well. He’s gotten stronger. He looks better. I was a bit confident. He’s a gelding. We’re going to keep him. Obviously, we’re going to look at the Summer Stakes, and if that goes well, we hope to go to the Breeders’ Cup again.”

Shifty leads all the way in Catch a Glimpse

Shifty, the longest price among the three Mark Casse-trained runners in the $175,500 Catch a Glimpse Stakes, led all the way in the 6 1/2-furlong turf sprint for 2-year-old fillies under Sahin Civaci.

Shifty ($25.50) covered the distance in 1:15.68 while scoring by 3 1/4 lengths over another maiden, Ready for Candy. Shotgun Wedding finished third ahead of the Casse-trained Will Reign, while Salt edged out the Casse-trained favorite Bullet for fifth in the 11-horse field.

An Ontario-bred daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, Shifty earned $108,000 for D J Stable.

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