Legal Move carries weight to Kenora win
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Despite spotting significant weight to all of his rivals, Legal Move ($3.90) ran down all the speed to win the six-furlong Kenora Stakes at Woodbine Monday.
The Kenora was one of six $125,000 Canadian-bred stakes on the card for graduates of local Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society yearling sales. Each winner earned $75,000.
Legal Move, carrying 124 pounds, including jockey Patrick Husbands, overhauled Drunken Love in deep stretch to prevail by three-quarters of a length in a time of 1:09.49. Hosta Rica closed belatedly on the outside to finish another neck back in third in the five-horse field.
"I was glad to see those horses go head-and-head on the lead," said Mark Casse, who trains Legal Move for Woodford Racing.
Head Chopper rallied wide from off a moderate pace under Emma Wilson to win the 1 1/16-mile Elgin over favored Dancer's Bajan, who was scratched from the Kenora. Head Chopper completed the distance in 1:43.59, and returned $11 in his first stakes triumph.
Favored Arden Belle ($6.30) won the female equivalent of the Elgin, the Algoma, for the second year in a row under Jono Jones.
Arden Belle scored by a neck over front-runner You Will Love Me, who nosed out Emma Ain't Bluffin for second. She covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.21.
Favored Society's Chairman won his first stakes under Jones in the Halton, running a mile on the grass in 1:33.31.
Society's Chairman ($6.60) closed wide from midpack to assume control in midstretch, and won by a nose over last year's Halton winner, My Imperial Slew.
Jones recorded the first of three stakes victories on the card aboard Mean Green, who won the seven-furlong Simcoe for 2-year-old colts and geldings over pacemaker Shut It Down. Mean Green returned $16.90.
Van Lear Rose ($8.10) won her maiden under Chantal Sutherland in the Muskoka for 2-year-old fillies. Favored Retraceable rallied wide for second in the seven-furlong sprint. Van Lear Rose's time, 1:23.68, compared favorably to Mean Green's 1:23.42.