Ice Festival looks to repeat in Maple Leaf

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Stronach Stables’s Ice Festival will try to win the Grade 3, $125,000 Maple Leaf Stakes for the second year in a row on Saturday’s 11-race Woodbine card.

Ice Festival is winless in six outings this year, but she placed in all five of her starts here on the Tapeta. After running second in both the Trillium and Grade 3 Ontario Matron stakes in the summer, she was a troubled third in the Sept. 2 Belle Mahone Stakes.

Most recently, in the nine-furlong allowance prep for the 10-furlong Maple Leaf, Ice Festival pressed a slow pace before dropping a neck decision to Gamble’s Ghost.

“She’s had some tough luck,” said trainer Sid Attard, who has won the Maple Leaf three times. “She loves the mile and a quarter.”

The supporting feature Saturday is the $100,000 Labeeb Stakes, a one-mile turf tilt in which Attard sends out Glenville Gardens.

KEY CONTENDERS

Ice Festival, by Awesome Again
Last 3 Beyers: 86-79-87

◗ Her new rider, Rafael Hernandez, breezed her five-eighths in 1:00 on the Tapeta last Sunday.

“She worked very good for the race,” Attard said. “He was very happy with the way she went. She galloped out good. She’s doing very well.”

Gamble’s Ghost, by Ghostzapper
Last 3 Beyers: 86-83-88

◗ Last year’s Grade 3 Selene winner captured the Belle Mahone convincingly before taking the prep for this after closing from fifth as the favorite. Her trainer, Josie Carroll, has won the Maple Leaf twice.

Stella Rose, by Mineshaft
Last 3 Beyers: 84-82-80

◗ The other Stronach entrant, trained by Kevin Attard, raced at least four wide all the way in the prep before ending up just 1 1/4 lengths behind Gamble’s Ghost in third.

Midnight Crossing, by Dark Angel
Last 3 Beyers: 78-77-78

◗ She was a minor player in her last three races, including the Ontario Matron and Belle Mahone. Trainer Roger Attfield sent her out to work an impressive five-eighths in a bullet 59.80 seconds on the Tapeta last Sunday.

◗ Like Stella Rose, she was cross-entered in Friday’s River Memories Stakes.

Labeeb Stakes

Glenville Gardens romped in this overnight event last year, scoring by nine lengths with a 103 Beyer Speed Figure. Two starts ago, he stalked the pace from an impossible five-wide position before fading in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile. He’s coming off a victory in a third-level optional claimer going about nine furlongs, which was thought to be a bit farther than his optimal distance.

Shakhimat ended a long drought while lowering the 1 1/16-mile course record in a second-level optional claimer Sept. 23.

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