Disfunction heads this cast
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Stakes winners Disfunction, Stuck in Traffic, and You Don't Pass make up half the field in Friday's Woodbine headliner, a third-level allowance with an $80,000 claiming option.
Disfunction was the dominant older sprinter here last spring, when he captured the $158,850 Jacques Cartier Stakes and the allowance prep for that event. In the six-furlong Jacques Cartier, he defeated future Canadian champion sprinter Field Commission and two-time Polytrack record-holder Legal Move, among others.
Disfunction missed the second half of 2009 after going unplaced in the Grade 3 Vigil and the Bold Venture stakes. After spending the winter at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida, he was a useful fourth in a five-furlong optional claimer here April 4.
Disfunction is 5 for 7 at six furlongs, the distance of Friday's race. Emile Ramsammy will ride him for trainer Julia Carey, who during the last five years has won at a 12 percent clip second time off a layoff of more than 45 days.
Stuck in Traffic was expected to show speed on opening day in the five-furlong Debut Stakes, but he broke slowly and was never in serious contention while racing very wide.
Stuck in Traffic hasn't found the mark since his decisive score from just off the pace in the May 9 New Providence Stakes, but he was a close third after leading in two stakes for Ontario-sired runners late last summer.
David Clark, who won four stakes aboard Stuck in Traffic at 2 and 3, will get a leg up from trainer Nick Gonzalez.
You Don't Pass has 3 victories and 2 seconds in 5 career starts, all under Chantal Sutherland. The highlight of his 2009 campaign was a determined win Sept. 7 in the Kenora, a six-furlong stakes for graduates of local yearling sales.
You Don't Pass has been idle since running second as the favorite in the Oct. 12 Mt. Sassafras Stakes. His trainer, Bob Tiller, has won with 20 percent of his six-month-plus layoff runners over the past five years.
Signature Red has been sidelined since his third-place finish behind Smokey Fire and Field Commission Nov. 21 in the Grade 3 Kennedy Road Stakes.
Congor Bay will be starting for the first time since last August. He spent the winter of 2008-09 at Santa Anita, where he captured the San Pedro Stakes.