Lac Macaza starts path to Queen's Plate with test against older foes
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Queen’s Plate nominee Lac Macaza faces older opposition off a six-month layoff in Friday’s featured seventh race at Woodbine. The 1 1/16-mile Tapeta event combines nonwinners-of-three Ontario-sired allowance types with $40,000 claimers and is the important anchor leg for the lone pick four on the eight-race card.
Lac Macaza closed from ninth for second after an awkward break when debuting around two turns Oct. 7. It wasn’t surprising to see him bet down to favoritism three weeks later, when he mounted an eye-catching wide rally to beat Ontario-sired maidens with a 67 Beyer Speed Figure.
Lac Macaza was favored against nonwinners-of-two Ontario-sired opposition in another route Nov. 26. After getting away slowly, he saved ground in sixth until the quarter pole before closing strongly to win going away with a 68 Beyer.
Lac Macaza may have to post at least a 75 Beyer to be competitive Friday, which isn’t out of the realm of possibility as he begins his quest toward the Aug. 21 Queen’s Plate. Luis Contreras will get a leg up from trainer Julia Carey on the Giant Gizmo colt, who is named after a village in Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains.
During the last five years, Carey was 2 for 19 (11 percent) with six-month-plus layoff runners with a return on investment of 94 cents.
The other contenders in the seven-horse field are Meyer and Reliability.
Meyer was the runner-up in the 2020 Breeders’ Stakes, the final leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.
Meyer took 1 of 6 starts last year, that victory coming in a nonwinners-of-two Ontario-sired allowance on the grass. He started twice over the winter at Gulfstream and has been idle since finishing second in a $40,000 starter allowance there Feb. 17.
Kazushi Kimura will ride Meyer for trainer Marty Drexler, who claimed the gelding for $40,000 for owner Bruno Schickedanz in 2020.
Reliability is exiting a 6 1/2-month break that began after he wound up second with a troubled trip in an Ontario-sired allowance Nov. 19. He received a 79 Beyer in that race and when he ran second in an open allowance in October.
Antonio Gallardo has the mount on Reliability for trainer Donnie MacRae, who has excellent numbers with six-month-plus layoff runners.
◗ Wood Be Wild should be well backed in the second leg of the pick four, the fifth race, a six-furlong sprint for nonwinners of two. Wood Be Wild was a minor player in his first two starts last November and then graduated in his 4-year-old bow on May 7, earning a big 83 Beyer in that five-furlong dash. Will he bounce in this acid test? The race came up light, and he could regress and still get the job done under Sahin Civaci.