Financingavailable can put icing on cake
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Financingavailable, the leading older filly or mare at Woodbine, will try to bolster her already strong case for a Sovereign Award in Sunday's $150,000 Bessarabian Stakes.
Financingavailable has registered 4 victories and 3 second-place finishes in 7 starts this year, all in stakes, for earnings of $370,000. She had a three-race win streak going, which ended when she narrowly lost the Oct. 28 River Memories Stakes, which was taken off the grass and run on Polytrack.
"I may have screwed up a bit in her last race," said trainer Lorne Richards. "I was a little overconfident, especially when it came off the turf. She tries hard every time. When she gets beat, she just gets beat."
Richards believes Financingavailable's campaign has made her the front-runner in the older female Sovereign Award division.
"She's won four stakes this year," Richards said. "There were a couple points last year when I didn't even think I was going to get her back. To get the Sovereign now would be great. I'd love to win it. If she could win [the Bessarabian], then she should get it. Even if she doesn't win, she still has a decent shot. She's run as good or better than anybody else here."
Trainer Mark Frostad has entered Count to Three and Hatpin in the seven-furlong Bessarabian.
Count to Three, formerly a turf expert, has made a smooth transition to Polytrack racing. She was recently second in the Ontario Fashion Stakes after capturing the allowance prep for that six-furlong dash.
"She's been training very well," said Frostad.
Hatpin has been absent since finishing third in the 2005 Bessarabian.
"She's been training like a house on fire," Frostad said. "We'll give her a start here, and then go down to New Orleans with her."
Miss Concerto won the 2005 Bessarabian when it was a Grade 3 race. She has struggled since taking the 1 1/16-mile Ontario Matron Stakes on July 28, and she was far back in the River Memories.
"Her last race was at a mile and 70 yards, and she doesn't really want to go that far," said trainer Sid Attard. "We got lucky earlier this year, winning at a mile and a sixteenth on the inner track. She's in good shape. She breezed good a couple of days ago."
Shot Gun Ela won her first stakes in the Ontario Fashion, in which she led throughout to prevail by 2 1/2 lengths at 11-1.