Monastery Lane steps up, stretches out

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine’s Sunday card features two restricted stakes that will be run on the E.P. Taylor turf course – the $125,000 Carotene Stakes for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies over 1 1/8 miles and the $100,000 Bunty Lawless Stakes for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds and upward over a mile.

In the Carotene, Monastery Lane will seek her first stakes score. She is coming off a five-length maiden win on Tapeta in her most recent start on Sept. 11. Monastery Lane made her first two starts on grass, finishing second in both races before her maiden win on synthetic.

“I wasn’t really sold on the turf, and I wanted to get her on the [synthetic track],” trainer Lorne Richards said. “But she ran well. I thought we might as well get her started, and go from there.

“ I liked her, but she never showed much in the mornings. She just worked along and did what you asked her.”

Monastery Lane will face stakes company for the first time as she stretches out in distance. Richards is looking forward to seeing if she’s up for the challenge.

“I don’t think she’s out of place with these horses,” he said. “You have to try and find out [about the longer distance]. But I don’t think it will be a problem. She’s been a nice little surprise, and hopefully she’ll carry on with it.”

The top three finishers from the Ontario Damsel Stakes – Amalfi Coast, Intanga Rose, and Miss Ariel – will all run back in the Carotene. Amalfi Coast won the Ontario Damsel by 2 1/2 lengths over Intanga Rose and earned an 84 Beyer Speed Figure for trainer Kevin Attard and owner Terra Racing Stable.

Attard has also entered Holyanna. Rounding out the field is Street Zapper. Both fillies will be making their stakes debuts.

In the Bunty Lawless, Silent Poet will exit graded stakes company to run against Ontario-sired competition. Silent Poet won his first two starts of the year, and recorded his first graded stakes win in the Grade 2 Play the King Stakes on Aug. 24. He earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure in his 1 3/4-length victory over Sable Island. Most recently, he was ninth in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile.

Dun Drum comes into the Bunty Lawless off back-to-back wins, including the Vice Regent Stakes over a mile on the inner turf on Sept. 7. He’ll start from the outside in the 10-horse field.

Other key contenders include Red Cabernet and Thor’s Rocket. The mare Red Cabernet will face males for the first time this year, but did run against males twice last season, including in the Bunty Lawless, where she finished fifth. She recorded back-to-back stakes wins earlier this year in the Eternal Search and Algoma Stakes, and was second in her most recent start, the Classy ’n Smart Stakes on Sept. 29.

Thor’s Rocket is looking for his first win of the season, but has hit the board in all four of his starts. He finished second by a neck and earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure in this event last season.