Don’t Leave Me to run in Ontario Colleen

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Don’t Leave Me, who was a troubled fourth in her most recent start in the Grade 3 Regret Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 13, will start in Saturday’s Grade 3 Ontario Colleen Stakes, trainer Malcolm Pierce said.

“She had a breeze on Friday,” he said. “It went very well, and we’re on target for the Ontario Colleen.”

Don’t Leave Me won the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks at Turfway Park in March and seemed to be in a good position to double up in the Grade 3 Selene Stakes here in May when she was beaten a head by Ol’ Fashion Gal. She returned to turf for the Regret, where she was interfered with on the far turn.

“I think she got stopped, and hopefully on this course, she’ll be a lot better,” Pierce said. “It wasn’t a bad effort. I just don’t think she had the best of trips. I’m not blaming a jockey or anything, but I think if she had a better trip, she would have finished a lot closer.”

Pierce said he thinks turf is Don’t Leave Me’s best surface, despite her having won just once in three turf starts.

“I do, but it’s hard to say because her race in the Natalma last year was a bad race,” he said. “She got away from the gate bad, and the turf was maybe too soft for her liking that day as well. It was three races in a short span of time last year, so that was a lot to ask as a 2-year-old, and probably mentally she wasn’t ready for that.”

Pierce said Don’t Leave Me has been training well in preparation for the Ontario Colleen. “She couldn’t be training any better right now,” he said.