Competitive Touch on upswing coming into Clarendon

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Fresh off winning last week’s $251,000 Coronation Futurity with Babbo, trainer Sid Attard runs another speedy 2-year-old, Competitive Touch, in Saturday’s $150,000 Clarendon Stakes at Woodbine.

After ending up fourth in his Sept. 10 opener, Competitive Touch dropped a head decision Oct. 15. He subsequently won a six-furlong maiden special in dominant fashion by 3 1/4 lengths under Luis Contreras.

Competitive Touch took some time to come around and Attard thinks the gelded son of Competitive Edge might be as good as Babbo.

“He was so big and heavy – I don’t know how he made the races,” Attard said. “We started working him late. The first time he ran, I knew he wasn’t ready, but I wanted to run him because that was the only way he was going to get fit. He got tired at the eighth pole. Every race he’s gotten better, and he’s doing really good.”

Other contenders in the six-furlong event for Ontario-bred or Ontario-sired juveniles include maiden winners Frac Dancer and Gun Court.

Frac Dancer led all the way when taking his 5 1/2-furlong debut by 2 1/4 lengths with Sahin Civaci aboard Oct. 15.

“He had been training well leading up to the race,” trainer Mike DePaulo said. “He put together a very nice effort in that first race.”

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets.

The long-striding Gun Court romped second time out by 9 3/4 lengths going 6 1/2 furlongs on Nov. 12 for trainer Cary Brooks, who has given the call back to apprentice Amanda Vandermeersch.

Trainer Mark Casse entered Midnight Mascot, who’s turning back off a pace-pressing fifth in the Grade 3 Grey.

Shady Well Stakes

DePaulo sends out Master Aragorn in the filly version of the Clarendon, the $150,000 Shady Well, a race he won with the future Canadian champion Caren in 2015.

Master Aragorn rode a speed bias to victory in an open maiden special Oct. 21. The daughter of Mastery has since worked fast, including five-eighths in 59.80 seconds last Sunday.

“We’re very excited about her,” DePaulo said. “She looks like she can run. We weren’t surprised at how well she ran first time out. She had trained well leading up to it.”

Little Teddy graduated in her second race at 48-1 after a non-threatening seventh in her Sept. 30 debut, a race trainer Santino DiPaola said she needed.

“She was sick with that virus going around for about a month where she didn’t do anything,” DiPaola recalled. “I two-minute licked her once, worked her once, and then we ran here. It was getting closer to the end [of the meet], and I had to get her started. She was just short on fitness. She came out of the race with a splint that we” treated.

Onella took her Oct. 14 debut in front-running style. Trainer Kevin Attard got permission from the stewards to add blinkers to her equipment for this engagement.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.