Expensive juvenile purchase Mensa romps in Victoria Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Resolute Racing’s Mensa was a brilliant winner of Friday’s $127,000 Victoria Stakes at Woodbine, winning the 5 1/2-furlong dash for 2-year-olds by 7 1/4 lengths over his favored Mark Casse-trained stablemate Into Diamonds.

Mensa ($5.30) went straight to the front under Patrick Husbands and set uncontested fractions before drawing off to prevail in a time of 1:04.60. Shadow Factor was beaten a nose for second after making up good ground in the stretch of the six-horse event.

Resolute Racing owner John Stewart was in attendance. He paid $740,000 for Mensa through a Fasig-Tipton digital auction after the son of leading freshman sire Complexity notched his April 12 debut at Gulfstream Park. Mensa subsequently finished a fading sixth in the May 2 Kentucky Juvenile Stakes at Churchill Downs.

“Mark was really high on him, so we were really excited about the opportunity to own him,” Stewart said. “We like his pedigree. The stallion is doing really well right now. He’s a great physical and it felt like he had a lot of potential.

“He didn’t really run that good at [Churchill] and we were a little disappointed, but we knew he had all the potential. Mark said let me take that horse to Woodbine and we’ll do some really good things with him. He said I think he’s really built for that track, and so that’s why we let him come up here.”

Florida-bred Mensa earned $75,000 in his first stakes success.

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