Mansetti tries to get back on track with Moran back on board
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Nothing went right for Mansetti from the start when he looked live in the Queenston Stakes. He deserves a mulligan when stretching out to 1 1/16 miles in Saturday’s Grade 3 Marine, one of two $150,000 stakes for 3-year-olds on the holiday card at Woodbine, along with the Grade 3 Selene for fillies.
Trained by Kevin Attard for owners Al and Bill Ulwelling, Mansetti earned a big 86 Beyer Speed Figure taking the April 27 Woodstock Stakes with authority. Going from six to seven furlongs in the June 8 Queenston, he was bumped at the break and nearly lost jockey Leo Salles before going on to finish fifth after a wide trip.
“He obviously lost all chance at the break,” Attard recalled. “He got bounced around leaving there, stumbled, and the jock was basically off him, but somehow, managed to get back on. He couldn’t get the horse into the position he wanted. You just draw a line [through] it.
“The horse seems to run a good one and then a bad one. He hasn’t been consistent in that sense, but I really like the way he worked last weekend. He worked well enough for me to give him a shot in this race.”
Pietro Moran has regained the mount on Mansetti, who is one of five nominees to the $1 million King’s Plate in the seven-horse field, along with Scorching, Watsonville Red, Sedbury’s Ghost, and War Signal.
Rafael Hernandez recently won on the other two entrants, Megalodon, as well as Church and State. The fact that he chose to ride Megalodon after winning the May 18 King Corrie Stakes on Church and State could make that runner the favorite. Hernandez was aboard for stretch-running Megalodon’s second-place finish in the March 22 Rushaway Stakes at Turfway and in the colt’s 1 1/16-mile allowance score here May 31.
Trainer Mike DePaulo is looking long term at the 1 1/4-mile Plate on Aug. 16 with Watsonville Red, a son of Hard Spun and the Awesome Again mare Ice Festival, who graduated in his sixth start May 16.
“The whole thing with this horse is he’s a stayer,” DePaulo said. “There aren’t too many Canadian-bred 3-year-olds that want to go long, long, and I think he’s one of them. His mother won the [1 1/4-mile] Maple Leaf Stakes. He’s still a little slow as far as numbers go, but he’s improving. We [gelded] him over the winter. I don’t know if that’s helped much, but it certainly hasn’t hurt.”
The Selene
Kentucky-based Somethinabouther has an affinity for Woodbine’s Tapeta and could go favored in the Selene, which has sufficient speed to satisfy her closing style.
Somethinabouther came to town in early November and defeated the upwardly mobile As Catch Can when capturing the Grade 3 Mazarine over 1 1/16 miles. The Brendan Walsh-trained daughter of Mendelssohn subsequently ran third and eighth in back-to-back stakes at Turfway before losing a nail-biter to Brindi here most recently in the seven-furlong Ruling Angel Stakes.
“She was unlucky not to win her last race, but it would have been a little sharp for her,” Walsh said. “On Saturday, the two turns should suit her. She won that stakes there last year going two turns. If she runs back to that, she should be tough.”
Trainer Mark Casse entered No Time, Ella It Is, and Tiz Her Money. The meet’s leading trainer has won the Selene a record nine times.
Woodbine Oaks nominees No Time and Ella It Is are both coming off front-running allowance scores over the 1 1/16-mile distance of the Selene. Tiz Her Money prevailed from off the pace in a seven-furlong allowance on June 14 following a two-month break. She was victorious in a two-turn maiden special in November.
Trainer Josie Caroll, who took last year’s Selene with Sabatini, sends out Serendipity and Madame Obey.
The speedy Serendipity started twice earlier this year for trainer Brad Cox. After winning her debut in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special on the grass at Gulfstream, she checked in second in an allowance over a sloppy-track race that was taken off the turf at Aqueduct.
The Tiz the Law filly Madame Obey is experimenting over a route of ground off a fourth-place finish in the King Corrie. The average winning distance of both her sire and dam’s progeny is 6.9 furlongs.
Nata Trouble is also going long for the first time. She placed in several stakes at 2 and got an 84 Beyer when second to Winterberry in the seven-furlong Fury Stakes for Canadian-breds on June 7.
Rounding out the field is Crystalaire, who was claimed from her maiden triumph for $50,000 in March by DePaulo, after which she finished sixth in the Ruling Angel. Going back five years, DePaulo has won at a 14 percent clip second time off a claim.
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