Feature contains two races in one
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Sid Attard and Reade Baker, who are in a heated battle for the Woodbine training title, will go mano a mano in Wednesday's headliner, a $100,000 allowance/optional claimer.
Heading into the final week of the meeting, Attard and Baker are tied with 74 wins apiece. In the feature, Attard will saddle the hot Mutakddim gelding Victoria's Boy, who should be the pacemaker in the seven-furlong event.
Victoria's Boy was slow to find his optimum form this year, and he finally found the mark in his fifth start of the season in a first-level allowance Sept. 3. After ending up second in an $80,000 claimer, he won an $80,000 optional claimer Oct. 20, and was subsequently second twice at this level.
Attard has two other starters on the card, including Kent Ridge, who should be favored in seeking his third straight victory in the sixth, an $8,000 claimer.
Baker's only runner on the eight-race program is Atlas Shrugs, who defeated Victoria's Boy while winning an $80,000 claimer with a strong wide rally Oct. 9.
Atlas Shrugs won two sprint stakes for 3-year-olds in the spring, before disappointing in both the Queen's Plate and Plate Trial Stakes. He reaffirmed his aversion to two-turn distances most recently, finishing a distant fourth in the Bunty Lawless Stakes.
Twisted Wit may be the one to fear most in the feature, in which he will compete with a $95,000 claiming price.
Twisted Wit, a 5-year-old trained by Bob Tiller, won stakes at 2 and 3 here over the old main track. He showed lots of determination in the Sept. 4 Kenora Stakes, a six-furlong dash for graduates of local yearling sales, winning by a neck after dueling wide on the lead.
Twisted Wit came up empty in the seven-furlong Mt. Sassafras Stakes on Oct. 8, but then rebounded 12 days later with a closing second-place finish to Victoria's Boy. He beat Victoria's Boy when he scored for a $77,500 claiming price at six furlongs Nov. 25.
Twisted Wit has been surprisingly inept running seven furlongs this year, but his overall record at that distance is solid. Corey Fraser inherits the mount from the sidelined apprentice Tyler Pizarro.