Confusing gets more ground with move to turf

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Two-year-old turf racing is in full swing nearing the halfway point of the 133-day Woodbine meet, and a six-furlong maiden special weight event on the main course attracted a field of eight in Friday’s sixth race.

Trainer Gail Cox sends out the gelding Confusing and the filly Lady Gabrielle. She owns both in partnership with John Menary.

Confusing started twice in a pair of shorter maiden special weight sprints on the Tapeta, finishing a well-beaten fifth both times. He is by the good 14 percent grass sire More Than Ready, and his dam won a one-mile turf stakes at Gulfstream Park. The mare produced Caroline’s Story, an allowance winner on the grass at Hawthorne with earnings of nearly $90,000.

Eswan Flores retains the mount on Confusing, who could show less speed than before with the blinkers removed.

Lady Gabrielle showed speed with the addition of blinkers in a six-furlong maiden special on the main turf against her own sex second time out. She faded in the final three-sixteenths to finish seventh, eight lengths behind the promising winner, Wickenheiser.

Apprentice Slade Jones stays aboard Lady Gabrielle, a daughter of Nyquist, the sire of 2020 Canadian champion male 2-year-old Gretzky the Great.

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Trainer Mark Casse entered the second-time starters Calusa Donnie and Gran Spirited. During the past five years, Casse has a 25-percent strike rate with maiden 2-year-old second-time starters at Woodbine, with a return on investment of $1.86.

Calusa Donnie got away slowly before finishing a distant fourth in his five-furlong opener on the Tapeta. His freshman sire, Mo Town, captured the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby on turf, but his dam has not produced a winner on the surface.

Gran Spirited was only an early factor when sixth at first asking in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special on the Tapeta. His Queen’s Plate-winning sire, Shaman Ghost, has gotten 13 percent grass winners. His dam produced three winners from five turf starters, including the stakes-placed juvenile Broughton Kitten.

Patrick Husbands rides Calusa Donnie, and Declan Carroll has the call on Gran Spirited. Carroll has been heating up in his first stint at Woodbine and is 10 for 47 aboard Casse-trained runners at the meet.

Keen Flatter is changing surfaces off a sixth-place finish behind the promising Battle Strike in his debut, from which the seventh-place finisher exited to win a maiden special at Colonial Downs and from which the eighth horse exited to beat Ontario-sired and $40,000 maidens here.

Keen Flatter is the first turf starter for his freshman sire, Ami’s Flatter, who was a Grade 3-winning sprinter-miler on dirt.

Sooner Lunar finished well back in his two Tapeta excursions. The son of superb grass sire Silent Name is out of a stakes-placed sprinter on turf at Fort Erie.