ETOBICOKE, Ontario –Woodbine’s leading Tapeta sprinter Flag Of Honour switches to grass in Saturday’s $175,000 Connaught Cup, a Grade 2 stakes scheduled for seven furlongs on the main course on the Woodbine Oaks undercard. An Australian import, Flag Of Honour has competed four times here for trainer Julia Carey. After a close third off a six-month break in an Oct. 29 conditioned allowance, the American Pharoah gelding rode a golden rail to victory in the Grade 2 Kennedy Road in November. He wintered north of the border prior to finishing second in his season opener in the Thorncliffe Stakes. “He stayed here in Ontario for the winter,” Carey said. “I was very impressed with his comeback. I knew he would need the race.” Most recently in the Grade 3 Jacques Cartier, Flag Of Honour went straight to the lead and never looked back, winning the six-furlong stakes and earning his second straight 98 Beyer Speed Figure. Flag Of Honour won three of his six turf starts in Australia, all without Lasix, which he has used in all of his Woodbine outings. Carey bypassed the Grade 2 Highlander going six furlongs here June 29 to have the 5-year-old fresh for the Connaught Cup. “I think he’s maybe even better on the turf,” Carey said. “He’s pretty good on the synthetic, too. That’s nice to know. He’s a very nice horse. I’m so blessed to have gotten him.” Emma-Jayne Wilson has ridden Flag Of Honour twice, and she inherits the mount from Kazushi Kimura, who has left town to ride at Del Mar. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. Trainer Mark Casse entered the new gelding First Empire and the supplement Capture the Lion after deciding not to run Highlander winner Filo Di Arianna. First Empire captured the 2021 Soaring Free Stakes, a prep for the Grade 1 Summer, in which he was a front-running fourth. The 5-year-old has been sidelined since taking a conditioned allowance on the Tapeta here a year ago. “He’s very talented,” Casse said. “He hasn’t run in a long time, but he’s trained well.” Capture the Lion took to the turf like a duck to water here in his last two starts, clearing the second allowance condition most recently traveling seven furlongs. “I’ve been impressed by Capture the Lion on the grass,” Casse said. “I was going to take him to Colonial, but when I decided not to run ‘Filo,’ that changed my mind. That’s why I supplemented him.” Trillium Stakes Casse sends out Solo Album and Forever Dixie in Saturday’s $135,000 Trillium, a Grade 3 Tapeta route for fillies and mares in which the Kevin Attard-trained Fashionably Fab could go favored. Fashionably Fab held Solo Album at bay throughout the stretch in her June 1 season opener in the Grade 3 Belle Mahone to prevail a neck. It was her fifth straight stakes victory, and the first for apprentice Pietro Moran. Forever Dixie was supplemented off a fifth in the Grade 2 Nassau on turf. She was previously third in the Belle Mahone in her second start of the year. “You never know with her,” Casse said. “If she brings her ‘A’ game, she can make anybody run. She’s very moody.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.