Carroll keeping Avie's Flatter, Nashtrick on separate paths

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It looks like trainer Josie Carroll plans on keeping her two gifted 2-year-olds apart heading into the remaining fall stakes at Woodbine.

Avie’s Flatter won last Sunday’s $225,400 Cup and Saucer Stakes convincingly, stamping himself as perhaps the leading juvenile on the grounds in the turf route. After the race, Carroll was non-committal about where he would run next. The $225,000 Coronation Futurity, a nine-furlong test for Canadian-breds on the Tapeta here Nov. 18, is a logical spot.

“We’re going to enjoy the moment and then decide whether we switch surfaces or not,” Carroll said. “He impressed me.”

Jockey Eurico Da Silva gave Avie’s Flatter a rave review after the Cup and Saucer, which was run over taxing yielding ground.

“He’s a very powerful horse,” Da Silva said. “He’s a very smart, relaxed horse. He has everything [going for] him.”

Nashtrick has made both of his starts on the grass. He won his debut in August comfortably and went on to finish third in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes, leaving a wide Avie’s Flatter just behind him in fourth.

“He breezed very, very well on the Tapeta [on Sunday] morning,” Carroll said. “We’re eyeing the Grey Stakes with him.”

The Grade 3 Grey will be contested over 1 1/16 miles on the main track here Oct. 21.

Carroll entered the upstart Mr Ritz in Saturday’s Grade 3 Ontario Derby on the Tapeta. He captured his last two races, both on turf, most notably the $200,000 Caesars Stakes at Indiana Grand.

“He broke his maiden on synthetic in Europe in the first race of his life,” Carroll pointed out. “He certainly deserves a shot to try” the Tapeta.

Avie’s Flatter’s older half-sister, Wonder Where Stakes winner Avie’s Mineshaft, is on target for the $125,000 Carotene Stakes, a turf event for Ontario-bred 3-year-old fillies here Oct. 20.

◗ According to owner John Burness, Bear Paw will make her first turf start in the nine-furlong Carotene here on Oct. 20. A late-blooming 3-year-old filly, Bear Paw defeated older Ontario-sired opposition over 1 1/16 miles on the Tapeta in the Classy ’n Smart here Sept. 30. The win was her first in a stakes.

“I think she wants to go farther,” Burness said.

Under the Colebrook Stables banner, Burness owns Bear Paw and Canadian International entrant Johnny Bear with Danny Dion’s Bear Stables.

◗ Leading trainer Norm McKnight is prominent on Friday’s nine-race card. He entered Gwendoline H and My Cantata in the second race, an optional starter scheduled for lane 5 on the grass. In the eighth, McKnight sends out Family Kitten in a nonwinners-of-three Tapeta sprint for Ontario-sired allowance types and $40,000 claimers.