Lord Kipling a versatile traveler

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The long-winded Lord Kipling was scratched from an optional claimer here at Woodbine on Sunday, and will go instead in Wednesday's seventh race, a $20,000 starter allowance for 3-year-olds and up. The 1 1/2-mile marathon is the only non-claiming event on the eight-race card.

Lord Kipling, the 2006 Manitoba Derby winner, finished second in a pair of 1 5/8-mile stakes over Aqueduct's inner track last December, the Gallant Fox and the Coyote Lakes.

Lord Kipling has captured 4 of 10 starts this year, while competing on three different surfaces, at six different tracks. He won a 1 5/8-mile optional claimer at Aqueduct in March, and ran third in the Ft. Harrod Stakes on the Polytrack at Keeneland in April.

Lord Kipling was claimed for $35,000 by trainer Scott Lake from his next-to-last start, a front-running triumph in a two-mile optional claimer on the dirt at Saratoga. Six weeks later, he beat $50,000 claimers over nine furlongs on a wet-fast track at Delaware Park on Sept. 29.

Emile Ramsammy has the mount on the 6-year-old Lord Kipling.

Skip Code, another classy gelding, was a closing second when he dropped sharply to $25,000 last Friday. He took back-to-back middle claimers going 1 1/16 miles in the summer, and is questionable going this far.

Good General, one of two 3-year-olds in the nine-horse field along with Venablo, wired $20,000 claimers going seven furlongs in his last start, while receiving an 81 Beyer Speed Figure. He could lead the way, with Lord Kipling in close proximity.

Venablo won a slowly run 1 1/2-mile event for $20,000 maidens in his next-to-last outing. A subsequent turf effort in Ontario-sired allowance company wasn't bad, but he's overmatched in this spot.

Thunder Wolf could make some noise first-time off the claim by trainer Scott Fairlie, a productive angle. He rallied from the back of the pack to prevail in his two most recent races, both going 1 1/16 miles against $12,500 opposition.

Paullinus never fired over a sloppy track in a recent allowance route at Fort Erie. He was previously based at Assiniboia Downs, where he was a bit player in stakes and optional claimers this year.

Major Gold has been in declining form, but he won his maiden traveling 1 1/2 miles on the grass in 2005, which is one of two good races at that distance on his record.