La Lorgnette rematches tiara fillies
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Touchnow and My Vintage Port, who each won a leg of this year's Canadian triple tiara, will meet again in the $132,625 La Lorgnette Stakes at Woodbine on Saturday.
The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies has also lured a United States shipper, Paiota Falls, along with Rosa Mundi and Surprised Humor.
Touchnow was second to Eye of the Sphynx in the first tiara race, the Labatt Woodbine Oaks. She upset Eye of the Sphynx in the second leg of the series, the Bison City Stakes at Fort Erie, winning by a neck and being awarded her second straight Beyer Speed Figure of 82.
Touchnow was seventh when she tried the turf for the first time in the final tiara event, the Wonder Where Stakes. Trainer Reade Baker refused to blame her subpar showing on the surface, believing that she lost all chance when she broke awkwardly.
"She broke in the air and broke sideways," Baker recalled. "She got farther out of it than she could ever make up. She pulled the same stunt earlier on in the year before the Oaks, so we schooled her and she seemed fine."
Baker was thrilled with Touchnow's six-furlong work in 1:13.20 last Saturday. "She came her last three-eighths in 35 and change," Baker said. "She's doing fantastic."
My Vintage Port, the 2003 Canadian champion 2-year-old filly, finished a distant third in the Oaks, and was beaten only two lengths when she finished third in the Bison City.
My Vintage Port overtook favored Eye of the Sphynx in deep stretch to capture the 1 1/4-mile Wonder Where at 14-1. She also won her last start, which came on the main track, in the Eternal Search Stakes for Ontario-sired fillies.
Trainer Ken Parsley has reason to believe that My Vintage Port is at her best on the grass.
Jockey Jono Jones, Parsley said, "thinks she's better on the turf, but it's pretty handy when you can run her on both surfaces."
My Vintage Port breezed five-eighths in 1:00.80 on Tuesday.
"She's a nice work filly," Parsley said. "She did it on her own, and came out of it good. She's in pretty good order right now. She's gotten better as the year goes on."
Paiota Falls, based at Saratoga with trainer Bill Mott, has won 3 of 4 starts, including two nine-furlong allowances in August at Saratoga. She could set the pace Saturday, although she doesn't need the lead.