Lasix rule prompts Jolie Olimpica to head to Woodbine

Jolie Olimpica, a four-time stakes winner in Brazil and California, will be moved to Woodbine Racecourse in Canada this spring where she can be treated with the anti-bleeder medication Lasix in stakes.

Trainer Richard Mandella said Jolie Olimpica bled in a recent start. Horses have not been allowed to be treated with Lasix in open stakes in California since the beginning of the year, according to a rule adopted by the California Horse Racing Board.

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A 5-year-old Brazilian-bred mare by Drosselmeyer, Jolie Olimpica will be trained by Josie Carroll.

“She’ll stay there,” Mandella said. “Basically, she got pretty sick last summer and it made a difference.”

Owned by Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farms, Jolie Olimpica has won 5 of 9 starts and earned $373,520. In Brazil, Jolie Olimpica was a Group 1 winner at about a mile on turf. In the United States, Jolie Olimpica won two sprint stakes on turf at Santa Anita in 2020 and was second in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland last July.

In two Grade 3 turf sprint stakes this year, Jolie Olimpica was second in the Las Cienegas Stakes against fillies and mares on Jan. 9 and third against males in the San Simeon Stakes on March 13.

Mandella has stakes plans this month for Royal Ship, a Grade 1 winner in Brazil in 2020 who is winless in four starts in California.

Royal Ship is being considered for the Grade 2 Californian Stakes, a $200,000 race at 1 1/8 miles on April 17 at Santa Anita, or the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile, a $250,000 turf race on April 24 at Golden Gate Fields. Mandella said the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on turf on May 31 at Santa Anita is the main goal of the spring for Royal Ship.

The winner of the $300,000 Shoemaker Mile receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

Royal Ship was fifth by a length in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf on March 6 in his first start of 2020.