Charmingly Evasive shoots for third straight win, this time on turf
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson and leading trainer Mark Casse have combined to win 11 races at the Woodbine meet. They will team up in Thursday’s featured conditioned allowance/optional claimer with the favored Charmingly Evasive, who’s aiming for her third win in a row in the six-furlong main turf sprint.
Exiting a nine-week break Aug. 1, Charmingly Evasive closed for third in a five-furlong inner turf dash in her only non-Tapeta start. She went on the graduate on the engine in a six-furlong maiden special and then doubled up in a nonwinners-of-two allowance sprint under Wilson, who’s optimistic that the D. J. Stable runner will make a smooth transition back to the grass.
“I think it should be just fine,” Wilson said. “She handled the grass off the layoff - five-eighths is a specialist kind of distance. She’s coming into herself really nice. She’s settled into focus mode.”
Wilson noted her past success when riding for Casse and said it’s not surprising that they have reconnected this year.
“I won 12 races for him back in 2022,” Wilson recalled. “We’ve had our relationship over the years. There’s been ebbs and flows and I’m very grateful. I’m also very appreciative of D. J. Stable’s support over the years.”
Thursday’s opener lured six others, including the main track only entrant Give Me the Boots and a dropping Cara Cara.
Cara Cara will try to regroup off a fade job against males in a conditioned allowance with an $80,000 claiming option Sept. 13.
A nominee to last Saturday’s Grade 3 Ontario Fashion, Cara Cara was a distant third behind reigning Canadian champion female sprinter Little Teddy in her best of two races in the spring and early summer, after which she got a break.
Ryan Munger retains the mount on Cara Cara and has a 36 percent strike rate for her hot trainer John Mattine.
Bond Market and Moon Channel head the intriguing supporting feature on the eight-race card, a nonwinners-of-two allowance going 1 3/8 miles on the inner turf.
Bond Market was an impressive debut winner at 45-1 in a one-mile maiden special on the inner turf July 5 and then went on to finish sixth after a tardy start in the King’s Plate.
After the Aug. 15 Plate, trainer Carlos Grant pointed Bond Market to the anchor leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the 1 1/2-mile Breeders’ Stakes Sept. 27. After trailing the six-horse field on the backstretch, the handsome chestnut rallied inside from far back for second behind the gate-to-wire winner Fire and Wine.
Moon Channel just missed in his local debut traveling a mile in his first try for trainer Katerina Vassilieva Sept. 13. When extending to 1 3/8 miles most recently in another maiden special on the inner turf, the 4-year-old closed two wide to win going away.
The seven-horse field also includes the Kevin Attard-trained fillies Starla and Star Attraction. Starla finished second ahead of a troubled Star Attraction in a 1 1/4-mile nonwinners-of-two allowance on the main turf Oct. 1.
Post time is 3:15 p.m.
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