Mansetti comes off bench for Woodstock Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – A maturing Mansetti returns from a layoff in Sunday’s $125,000 Woodstock Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds at Woodbine.

Named after a pizza and pasta chain in Minnesota, Mansetti won twice here at 2 while getting a 74 Beyer Speed Figure both times. He wired the field in the restricted Clarendon Stakes here going six furlongs Nov. 24, after which he ran a distant fifth in the Jan. 4 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct.

Trainer Kevin Attard said Mansetti didn’t handle dirt in the one-mile Jerome.

“It was a very laboring track that day,” Attard recalled. “I was there watching the races and a lot of horses seemed to be struggling with the surface. He was [prominent] for about 2 1/2 furlongs and then threw in the towel. We freshened him up in Kentucky after and sent him up north.”

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Mansetti has been working fast here on the Tapeta, including back-to-back bullet half-mile drills in early April. Pietro Moran, riding without his apprentice allowance, has the mount for owners Al and Bill Ulwelling.

“He’s been training really well,” Attard said. “He seems a bit more mature this season. That should benefit him. He was showing a lot of speed last year. I’m taking the blinkers off for this race, just because he seems to be more settled.

“I’m happy with the way he’s coming into the race. He’s had some good works under his belt. Cutting back to six furlongs should be right up his alley.”

Church and State also joined the early Kentucky Derby trail before heading to the sidelines, finishing a distant fourth in the one-mile Leonatus Stakes over Turfway Park’s Tapeta Jan. 18. Trainer Dale Desruisseaux said the wiry gray encountered some obstacles at Turfway.

“The weather wasn’t great and we missed a lot of training, spending about two weeks in the barn,” Desruisseaux said. “Right before they got back to racing, they cultivated the track, and it was a deep surface. He was very tired after the race. I just don’t think he handled the track.”

Desruisseaux said Church and State has trained encouragingly of late.

“He has had very nice breezes over the past two-plus weeks,” he pointed out. “The race might be a tad short for him, but it looks like he will have some speed to run at.”

Notorious Gangster wintered at Turfway after landing the 1 1/8-mile Coronation Futurity here Nov. 30 and is eyeing the Canadian Triple Crown. Trainer Josie Carroll sent out the Ontario-bred to breeze three times here this month.

Trainer Mark Casse entered the maiden winners War of Destiny, a first-time gelding, and Most Likely, who was supplemented.

Big Vince, based at Hawthorne with trainer Larry Rivelli, scored twice over the winter at Turfway, where he also was a front-running third in the March 22 Animal Kingdom Stakes.

Completing the Woodstock lineup are Incoming, Kokomo, and Thundering.

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