ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Julia Carey sends out her stable stars Flag of Honour and Lac Macaza in different stakes Saturday, when Woodbine stages four added-money events on the grass, three of which are graded. Flag of Honour is returning from a summer vacation in the Grade 2, $250,000 Nearctic, which also lured reigning Canadian champion male sprinter Patches O’Houlihan. The six-furlong sprint was won last year by Big Invasion, who subsequently finished a troubled second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita. An Australian import, Flag of Honour took the Grade 2 Kennedy Road in November and the Grade 3 Jacques Cartier on June 1. He came up empty switching to the turf most recently July 20 in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup. “We had to give him a break from that last race,” Carey said. “We just decided the summer months were not for him, so we turned him out for a few weeks and brought him back. He’s doing well. I was going to run him in the Vigil Stakes, but then I thought maybe he was a little light on training, so we waited.” Patches O’Houlihan is 10 for 12 lifetime and 3 for 3 this year in a trio of Tapeta stakes. He was 1 for 2 on the grass during his formative years, and trainer Robert Tiller was non-committal about running the popular 4-year-old in the Nearctic. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. “We decided to enter and have a look at the race and the turf condition,” Tiller said. “The last time he ran on the turf, he chipped his knee. He ran a quarter of a mile and took a bad step. It will be a game-day decision.” The speedy Bring Theband Home is making his stakes debut for trainer Mark Casse off an easy score in a 5 1/2-furlong conditioned allowance at Saratoga. “He’s an extremely talented and fast horse,” Casse said. “We’re excited about him.” Singspiel Stakes Lac Macaza is among a field of 14 in the Grade 3, $175,000 Singspiel over 1 3/8 miles on the main course. The 5-year-old notched his first stakes traveling 1 1/4 miles here Sept. 27 in the Niagara and has been the consummate late-bloomer. “He’s just gotten better as he’s gotten older,” Carey said. “He’s more settled and has matured. I’ve always liked him on the turf, but he [handles the Tapeta] pretty good, too.” Kazushi Kimura, who won an allowance on the Tapeta three starts back on Lac Macaza, was unavailable Saturday. The now-sidelined apprentice Pietro Moran was aboard for the Niagara. Emma-Jayne Wilson has the mount Saturday. “His running style has gotten a little nicer,” Carey said. “Kazushi got him going really good, and Pietro really did a great job just getting him to settle and to not take too much of a hold coming out of the gate – just let him gallop along. That worked for him.” English Conqueror is coming into the Singspiel fresh after starting just three times this year for trainer Darwin Banach. He lowered the 1 3/16-mile course record when notching his season debut in a second-level allowance in June at Aqueduct, after which he trailed in fifth in the Grade 2 Bowling Green at Saratoga. Most recently in the 1 1/2-mile Cape Henlopen Stakes at Delaware, English Conqueror faded to third after attending a slow pace on the outside. In a field that scratched down to five horses, Banach said things didn’t go the gelding’s way after breaking from the outside post under Rafael Hernandez. “I don’t think it worked out in his favor,” Banach recalled. “He’s the type of horse who likes to get covered up, or he doesn’t relax and wants to take a hold the whole way. He was stuck on the outside and couldn’t get down in behind.” English Conqueror was scratched from the Niagara due to an issue with his Lasix administration. Stretch-runner Palazzi wound up third in the Niagara and is one of three Casse-trained entrants in the 14-horse field. “They have to set it up for him,” Casse said. “He needs some pace.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.