Mo Touring returns to action on favored surface

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Mo Touring ran well over Woodbine’s inner turf last year, and she should be favored in her season opener over the tight course on Friday. The race combines non-winners of two Ontario-sired allowance types with $40,000 claimers and goes as the seventh race.

A 4-year-old owned and bred by Gary Barber, Mo Touring missed the board in three stakes here at 2 on turf and the Tapeta after notching her debut at Gulfstream Park. Her best showing in those races was a fourth in the five-furlong Woodbine Cares Stakes on the inner turf.

Mo Touring failed to win in four races last year, the best of which was a third on the inner course in her last start on Oct. 29. Normally a front-runner, she rallied outside from seventh to finish just a half-length back of Miss Brentwood and Spooky Spice.

Sahin Civaci retains the mount on Mo Touring and is 5 for 21 at the meet for Mark Casse. Casse, the perennial leading Woodbine trainer, has won at a 19-percent clip with six-month-plus layoff types in turf sprints here during the past five years, with a return on investment of $1.85.

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After placing in all four of her starts on Tapeta last year at 2, Katchy Name is making her grass debut off an extended layoff. After a third on debut in the $201,000 Muskoka Stakes, for graduates of Canadian yearling sales, she was a beaten favorite twice before earning her diploma in a Dec. 1 sprint for Ontario-sired and $40,000 maidens.

Katchy Name is by the good 15 percent grass sire Silent Name, but there’s no turf breeding in her immediate female family. Leading jockey Kazushi Kimura will ride her again for ace layoff trainer Kevin Attard; they’re a combined 7 for 23 at the meet.

Thatsitthatsall has been working right along for her first outing in about a year. The diminutive 4-year-old had a productive 2-year-old season, highlighted by runner-up finishes in the Muskoka on the Tapeta and the 7 1/2-furlong Victorian Queen Stakes on the inner turf.

Kirk Johnson, who won three races at Fort Erie last Sunday, retains the mount on Thatsitthatsall for owner-trainer Debra Rombis.

Silver Bullet Lady is moving up off a $25,000 claim by trainer Danny Yu. She was second in both of her appearances at the meet, most recently in a dead heat as the favorite in a five-furlong inner turf dash. She could have a lovely stalking trip under Eswan Flores after breaking from the rail.

Rounding out the compact field is longshot Indian Music, who could lead the way under Jose Campos. Owned and trained by Michael Sims, she was a much improved second in her second start off the bench vs. $25,000 non-winners of two opposition on June 10.

Post time for the eight-race card is 1:10 p.m.

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