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WHO’S HOT

Queen’s Plate-winning trainer Nick Gonzalez went 5 for 8 during the week of June 30-July 4, which vaulted him into a tie for fourth in the standings, with 19 wins. Leading trainer Mark Casse was 4 for 20, and he now has 32 tallies from 203 starters.

Other hot trainers included Nick DeToro (2 for 2), Marty Drexler (2 for 3) and Mike DePaulo (2 for 4).

Apprentice Omar Moreno and Chantal Sutherland led all jockeys with seven wins apiece from June 30 through July 4. Queen’s Plate-winning rider Eurico Da Silva registered six victories, and is tied atop the standings with Patrick Husbands. They both have 60 wins, but Da Silva did so with 47 fewer mounts than Husbands’s 348.

WHO’S NOT

Steve Asmussen, who is tied for second in the trainer standings with Reade Baker, was shut out with 10 starters from June 30 through July 4. Six of those runners did manage to hit the board, but most of them were strongly backed in the betting.

TRACK TRENDS

A biased track is often good for serious trip handicappers, because it can give them an edge on the “weekend warriors” who haven’t done their homework. The Polytrack was wildly inconsistent in the way that it played from June 30-July 4, and those who keep tabs on who ran with and against the bias should reap the rewards when these horses run back.

Wednesday, June 30: The inside was the place to on this evening card. Five of the seven Polytrack winners had an inside trip, including longshot Cozy Cabin, who rallied along the rail on the far turn to prevail under Justin Stein, who is the closest thing to Calvin Borel at Woodbine. The two outside winners were the closing Esporon and the stalking Step On Up.

Thursday, July 1: In sharp contrast to the previous night, all eight Polytrack winners raced outside most of the way, scoring from either a stalking or closing position. Granted, most of the riders stayed way off the rail on the backstretch, as usual, but nobody rode the inside two paths to victory. Horses who competed against the bias included Dominion Day Stakes favorite Southdale, who finished third, along with Waccamaw, Pretty Miss Trippi, Lady Elena, Gabriel’s Hill and Brigadier Rodney.

Friday, July 2: The Polytrack seemed fair.

Saturday, July 3: Front-runners took six of the eight Polytrack events, and the other two races were won by a stalker and a closer. Horses who made up some ground over the speed-conducive surface included Skootin, Race for Gold, Great Home, Naval Attack, and the last race’s winner, Highland Flare.

Sunday, July 4: It’s not easy to quantify the bias on Queen’s Plate Day, but even Queen Elizabeth must have noticed that speed was dominant and that the inside was a little better than the outside. The eight Polytrack races produced five front-running winners, most notably Plate winner Big Red Mike, who was allowed to set slow fractions. Two stalkers found the mark, and one closer got the job done. Horses who ran against the speed bias included Kissed by a Ghost, Civil Code, Ronaldino and Woodbine Oaks winner Roan Inish, who was a commendable third in the $1 million Plate.

QUEEN’S PLATE RECAP

For the third year in a row, the winner of the nine-furlong Plate Trail Stakes captured the prestigious Queen’s Plate when Big Red Mike prevailed in the 1 1/4-mile test for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds

Big Red Mike, the 5-1 third choice in the 13-horse field, went right to the front under Eurico Da Silva and set tepid fractions of 24.43 seconds, 49.39, and 1:14.31, on a track that was kind to speed. The talented Hotep pressed Big Red Mike through the far turn, but Big Red Mike established a clear lead at the head of the stretch en route to a 1 1/2-length win, in a time of 2:04.89, which translated into a Beyer Speed Figure of 91.

Da Silva also won last year’s Plate aboard Hotep’s full-brother, Eye of the Leopard.

“I’m proud of both horses,” said Da Silva. “The horse last year tried so hard, and this horse was so focused. He tried his best. He ran great. I was galloping along pretty easy around the first turn. When Hotep pressed me, I just tried to nurse him along, and I had a lot of horse turning for home.”

Big Red Mike was the first Plate starter for trainer Nick Gonzalez, who recently notched career victory number 1,000.

“He’s a fighter,” said Gonzalez. “He showed that when he won the Plate Trial, and he moved forward after he won that race. He looked like he was going pretty comfortable all the way round. He didn’t get a real lot of pressure. When they came to him, I knew he’d dig in and fight them off, and that’s exactly what he did.”

Big Red Mike should be favored in the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown July 25, in the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes at 1 3/16 miles on the dirt at Fort Erie, where many of Gonzalez’s runners are stabled. His pedigree is dirt-oriented, which doesn’t bode well for his chances in the third Triple Crown race, the 1 1/2-mile Breeders’ Stakes on the grass here Aug. 15.

OTHER NOTABLEPERFORMANCES

The Bill Mott-trained Hold Me Back turned back a stern challenge from longshot Pool Play to take the Grade 3, $216,400 Dominion Day Stakes under Tyler Pizarro on July 1.

Hold Me Back raced in mid-pack on the outside in the 1 1/4-mile route, and then hit the front early in the stretch before gamely holding off Pool Play to win by a head in 2:03.65, a time that was just .18 of a second off the Polytrack record. He earned a Beyer Figure of 97.

Hold Me Back, the 12th-place finisher in the 2009 Kentucky Derby, is arguably at his best on synthetics. He ran big in a pair of Polytrack stakes last year, winning the Grade 2 Lane’s End at Turfway, and running second in the Grade 1 Blue Grass at Keeneland.

Signature Red wore down pacemaker Heros Reward in the stretch to notch his first stakes under Chantal Sutherland on July 4 in the $204,400 Highlander.

Maryland shipper Heros Reward, the 2008 Highlander winner, set honest fractions in the six-furlong turf sprint, with Signature Red in close proximity. Signature Red drew alongside Heros Reward at the top of the stretch, and they duked it out until the final strides before Signature Red won by a neck, in a time of 1:08.17.

Signature Red, trained by Sid Attard, received a 99 Beyer, just shy of the 100 he got for winning the allowance prep for the Grade 2 Highlander.

“He ran his guts out,” said Attard. “There was no way he was going to let that horse go by him.”