Canada has breakthrough in Cup and Saucer Stakes
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The aptly named Canada under Emma-Jayne Wilson broke his maiden against an inexperienced group of Canadian-bred 2-year-olds in Sunday’s $301,000 Cup and Saucer Stakes at Woodbine.
Canada ($18.10) tracked the pacesetter Mo Cookie through the turn in the 1 1/16-mile turf event before taking control in the stretch en route to a 1 3/4-length triumph, in a time of 1:43.96 over the good ground.
The favored maiden Bunyan closed belatedly for third while ending up three lengths back of Mo Cookie. Glorious Gem finished fourth and 9-2 second choice King’s Counsel faded to fifth in the 10-horse field.
Canada was adding Lasix off a chalky second at first asking in a maiden special weight Tapeta sprint, a race which Wilson said the colt benefited from greatly.
“He figured out what the game is,” Wilson said. “The difference between him in the morning before his first race and after his first race was he was significantly more focused. Not that he was unfocused before, but he just knew what all this energy was for. He had his game face in the morning when I breezed him and I knew when we came into the paddock today that he was going to be tough to beat.
“When my guy got away from there, he settled into a nice rhythm and I was happy in a forward position. He was traveling so comfortably.”
Canada earned $180,000 for D.J. Stable, which purchased the son of Medaglia d’Oro for $400,000 at a Florida 2-year-old sale earlier this year. Canada gave trainer Mark Casse his eighth victory in the historic race.
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