Conquest Harlanate likely to go in Alywow

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Canada’s champion juvenile filly of 2014, Conquest Harlanate, is getting close to making her 2015 local debut after breezing five furlongs in 59.80 seconds on the turf training track here Sunday.

Trainer Mark Casse said Conquest Harlanate likely will start in the $100,000 Alywow Stakes, an overnight stakes for 3-year-old fillies over 6 1/2 furlongs on turf June 14, the same day as the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks.

Conquest Harlanate could have been considered a key contender for the Woodbine Oaks when the nominations for the race were released in March, but she skipped the Fury Stakes on May 3, a key local prep, because Casse wasn’t satisfied with how she had been training. He said Conquest Harlanate has been training more forwardly since then.

“She’s been training much better,” he said. “Her breeze [May 14] was very good. There’s an outside shot she could run in the Woodbine Oaks, but it would be a tall task to ask her to come off of the long layoff, so I think the Alywow is probably where she’s going to surface.”

Conquest Harlanate has not raced since being eased in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 3. She won three of her four Woodbine starts in 2014, including a pair of victories over the E.P. Taylor turf course, most notably in the Grade 2 Natalma Stakes last September.