Don't Leave Me pointing to Selene Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Malcolm Pierce will be well represented in both stakes next weekend at Woodbine, with Deceptive Vision and Overheard in the Nassau and Don’t Leave Me in the Grade 3 Selene Stakes next Sunday, May 24.

Don’t Leave Me returned from a six-month layoff to capture the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks on March 21 at Turfway Park.

“She kind of outdid herself for the first time out of the box this year,” Pierce said. “We were very impressed. I would have been very happy with her just hitting the board. She had a very, very good work here on [May 8], so she doesn’t need much more.”

Don’t Leave Me showed promise last year as a 2-year-old at Woodbine, winning her first two starts, including the prep for the Grade 2 Natalma Stakes last August. But in the Natalma, she had trouble right out of the gate and never recovered.

“The turf was very soft that day, and she got bumped pretty good leaving the gate,” Pierce said. “I don’t know whether to blame it on getting bounced around, the soft turf, or if it was three races every three weeks. I was putting a lot of pressure on her just to get her to the Natalma. We had three excuses after the race, so we just threw it out and gave her some time.”

Pierce said he had options to bring Don’t Leave Me back over the winter in Florida but is happy he waited.

“I was going to bring her back at Gulfstream, but I didn’t want to bring her back on a torn-up turf course,” he said. “We just waited and found that spot. I actually had her entered at Tampa in the Florida Oaks, but that race came up very, very tough. It looks like we made the right decision to not run there and wait for the Turfway race.”