Dance to the Moon tries to fire fresh in Ballade

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The fast-working Dance to the Moon will try to land her first stakes win Saturday at Woodbine in the $125,000 Ballade, a six-furlong sprint for Ontario-sired fillies and mares.

Dance to the Moon finished second in last year’s Ballade during a productive campaign that featured an optional-claiming score in November. She has been idle since finishing well back in 10th in the Grade 2 Bessarabian Stakes on Dec. 1.

Trainer Mike Doyle said Dance to the Moon has trained encouragingly leading up to the Ballade.

“I think she’ll run well,” Doyle said. “I think she’s gotten better and more consistent as she’s gotten older.”

Doyle said he bypassed last weekend’s Grade 3 Whimsical Stakes “because it looked real tough. I had her entered in an allowance race opening day, but it only got two horses. I was hoping to get one into her, which would have been three weeks [until the Ballade], but she runs good fresh anyway.”

Eleven others were entered, including Strut the Course, who has been sidelined since losing the Sept. 7 La Prevoyante Stakes by a neck. She previously was victorious in another Ontario-sired stakes for 3-year-old fillies, the Eternal Search.

“She’s coming along good,” trainer Barb Minshall said. “She had an injury after her last start, so she had some time off and spent the winter down at Webb Carroll Training Center and got fit again. Six furlongs probably isn’t her best distance, but she sure can run it. Obviously, she’s a 4-year-old now, so she has to run against older fillies, but she’s doing well.”

Bear’s Gem captured the 2013 Ballade for trainer Reade Baker but is winless in six starts since then. On Wednesday, she blew out a half-mile over a quick Polytrack surface in 47.80 seconds.

Moonlit Beauty won two route stakes last year, most notably the Grade 3 Maple Leaf. She is looking to stretch out after the Ballade, in which she wound up ninth last year.

I’m a Kittyhawk finished first in each of her last two outings in the fall but was disqualified from purse money Nov. 9 because she was ineligible for that allowance. She was an upset winner in the Lady Angela Stakes for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies last May.

Trainer Bob Tiller entered Grace Phil and Laughing Falcon, who are both on the comeback trail.

Only four entrants have started this year, including Silent Star, who closed for second in a five-furlong dash that combined Ontario-sired allowance stock with $40,000 nonwinners-of-three claimers.