Flamboro: Courtly Choice tackles tough foes in Confederation Cup

Last year’s Meadowlands Pace and Little Brown Jug winner Courtly Choice made a successful return to the races on Saturday (May 4), winning a round of the Graduate Series at the Meadowlands, and now heads to Flamboro Downs in Ontario to take on a loaded field in this year’s edition of the Confederation Cup for 4-year-old male pacers.

Courtly Choice employed a first-over tactic and chased down loose leader Done Well in the lane Saturday night, completing the mile and an eighth journey in 2:01 4/5. Trainer Blake MacIntosh explained that the heroic effort in the Jug left his horse a little short at the end of last year, but the time off has perked him right back up.

"We're really happy with him. He seems to have come back to where we wanted him,” offered MacIntosh. “I think the Jug took a lot out of him. He was a little tired at the end of the year, but he's good now."

After initially announcing the son of Art Major would be retired to stand stud at Winbak Farm in New York, the ownership group decided to keep him in the racing ranks, something MacIntosh attributed, in part, to the opportunity to race in restricted 4-year-old races like the Graduate and the Confederation Cup before this group has to meet up with the likes of McWicked and the rest of the aged crew.

"It's extremely great. One of the reasons we decided to bring him back was because of the 4-year-old races,” said MacIntosh. “We could make some money there before taking on McWicked and the rest of them."

As for Sunday’s two C$20,000 eliminations, which will set the field for the C$180,000 (estimated) final on May 19, the race Courtly Choice drew into is clearly the deeper of the two as he will meet up with the likes of Dorsoduro Hanover, Lather Up and Jimmy Freight. Fortunately for Courtly Choice, the draw was kind to him as he has post two while Lather Up and Jimmy Freight are stuck out in posts seven and eight. Dorsoduro Hanover has the rail.

"It's pretty stacked, that division, but lucky for me that two of the better ones drew the seven and eight-hole against us,” remarked MacIntosh. “Hopefully we can get a trip and everything works out right."

After competing in the Confederation Cup, the schedule for Courtly Choice is to head back to the Graduate Series, but a test against open company at Northfield Park could be on the horizon as well. MacIntosh also added that the connections were much more thorough in staking Courtly Choice this year, so they won’t have to supplement him to events on a regular basis like they did through 2018.

"The plan is to go to the next Graduate at Mohawk, and after that, depending on how that goes, we'll take him to the Battle of Lake Erie or the next Graduate at Tioga,” MacIntosh said. “We paid him into everything this time."

Sunday night’s two Confederation Cup eliminations are races six (estimated post 8:35 P.M.) and nine (estimated post 9:35 P.M.), with Courtly Choice taking part in the second one.

Confederation Cup elimination #1

1-Kwik Talkin (James MacDonald/Shawn Steacy)

2-Done Well (Dexter Dunn/Ron Burke)

3-Pretty Handsome (Jonathan Drury/Andrew McCabe)

4-The Downtown Bus (Doug McNair/Jeff Gillis)

5-Backstreet Shadow (Daniel Dube/Scott DiDomenico)

6-American History (Sylvain Filion/Tony Alagna)

7-Hitman Hill (Doug McNair/Chris Oakes)

8-This Is The Plan (Matt Kakaley/Ron Burke)

Confederation Cup elimination #2

1-Dorsoduro Hanover (Matt Kakaley/Ron Burke)

2-Courtly Choice (David Miller/Blake MacIntosh)

3-Captain Deo (Daniel Dube/Scott DiDomenico)

4-Rockin Speed (Billy Davis Jr./Joe Seekman)

5-Ghost Dance (Randy Waples/Nick Gallucci)

6-Pedro Hanover (Trevor Henry/Corey Giles)

7-Lather Up (Montrell Teague/Clyde Francis)

8-Jimmy Freight (Louis-Philippe Roy/Richard Moreau)