Dixie Moon looking to rebound in Selene Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The $500,000 Woodbine Oaks, for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies, is about a month away on June 9, and Dixie Moon will have her final prep race May 19 in the Grade 3, $125,000 Selene Stakes, trainer Catherine Day Phillips said.

Following her sixth-place run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar last November, Dixie Moon returned to Woodbine to win the Ontario Lassie Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta and close out her campaign Dec. 3. She wintered with Day Phillips at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida and made her 3-year-old debut finishing ninth in the Grade 2 Appalachian Stakes at Keeneland on April 8.

Dixie Moon, Day Phillips said, “had a little bit of some funky blood work come back” after the Appalachian, but she’s not sure that was the reason for her performance.

“Maybe she wasn’t tight enough,” she said, adding that she may not have liked the softer turf there.

“We pulled her blood on Monday, and she’s all back in order. She’s in good shape. She had a nice breeze last weekend with [jockey Eurico Da Silva] back on board.”

Day Phillips said the Selene will help determine if Dixie Moon continues on to the Oaks or returns to turf, the surface on which Dixie Moon defeated males in the Cup and Saucer Stakes last season.