Infinite Patience shipping in for Fury Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Vancouver invasion began successfully last Saturday when perennial leading Hastings trainer Phil Hall won his first Woodbine race with Saltini.

The Hastings sensation Infinite Patience is expected to put her unbeaten record on the line in her season opener in Sunday’s $125,000 Fury Stakes, a seven-furlong event for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.

Trained by Barbara Heads for William Decoursey and Edmonton Oilers star forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Infinite Patience went 5 for 5 at 2, including four stakes scores. She finished a close second to Curlin’s Voyage in the 2019 Sovereign Award voting for champion 2-year-old filly.

Infinite Patience’s connections felt this was a good opportunity to try her out of town.

“We don’t have that many options,” Nugent-Hopkins told Woodbine publicity. “There aren’t a whole lot of stakes races in Vancouver or even in Edmonton, and they don’t start until the end of July. She’s been training so long and she’s ready to go. We’ll take a shot and see what happens. The Tapeta, it’s a little different [than the dirt track at Hastings], so that’s the only real hesitation I have.”

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Infinite Patience worked five-eighths in a sizzling 58.40 seconds on Sunday at Hastings.

Hall of Fame gala canceled

The board of directors of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame has canceled the 2020 induction gala, due to restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the intention of the Hall of Fame to induct the Class of 2020, along with those to be inducted in 2021, during a ceremony tentatively scheduled for the summer of 2021.

The 2020 inductees are Gary Boulanger, Sue Leslie, Mike Keogh, Paul MacDonell, and Ben Wallace, along with the horses Amour Angus, McWicked, Play the King, Rambling Willie, and Tepin,

Memories of Seymour after Nassau

Trainer Roger Attfield’s victory with Elizabeth Way in Saturday’s Nassau brought back memories of his first win in that Grade 2 stakes with the champion Carotene in 1987. Carotene was ridden by multiple Sovereign Award winner Donnie Seymour, who passed away last Friday at 59.

Seymour won back-to-back Canadian Triple Crowns on With Approval and Izvestia in 1989-90. They were both trained by Attfield, with whom he also teamed up with to finish second in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Play the King. The affable native of Hamilton, Ontario, was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1999.

Plate, Oaks payments due

The second payment for both the $1 million Queen’s Plate and $500,000 Woodbine Oaks was due Wednesday.

The Plate was postponed from June 27 to Sept. 12 due to the pandemic. The Oaks was pushed back from June 6 and will headline the Aug. 15 card, along with the $150,000 Plate Trial Stakes.

“This is the payment into the race,” Woodbine stakes manager Julie Bell said. “At this time, people can make a late nomination into the Queen’s Plate and the Oaks. If they miss this, then they have to supplement at the time of final entry into the race.”