Mr Ritz ready for season debut in Eclipse Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Mr Ritz, who reached full bloom as a front-runner last year at 4, is set to make his 5-year-old debut in Saturday’s Grade 2, $175,000 Eclipse Stakes at Woodbine.

Off a seven-month layoff, Mr Ritz was beaten a nose after a cutthroat stretch battle with Souper Tapit in last year’s 1 1/16-mile Eclipse. He went on to capture two 1 1/16-mile stakes on Tapeta, the Grade 3 Seagram Cup here and the $200,000 Presque Isle Downs Mile. He was quite impressive in the latter event, during which he pressed a rapid pace before going on to score with a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

Not surprisingly, Mr Ritz was a clear second in the 2019 Sovereign Award voting for champion older male on the main track, behind the popular sprinter Pink Lloyd.

“He ran hard last year, and we gave him some time off after his last race,” trainer Josie Carroll said. “We got back up here, and racing was delayed. He’s been training great. He’s ready to go.”

:: Want to get your Past Performances for free? Click to learn more.

Carroll also entered Avie’s Flatter, the 2018 Canadian champion male 2-year-old and 2019 Queen’s Plate runner-up. He was third in an open allowance on the inner turf in his first run of the year on June 11.

“He’d been ready to run for quite a while,” Carroll said. “He was scheduled to run at Gulfstream or Keeneland and didn’t get that opportunity. He was sort of overready the last time. I think that race will settle him nicely. He’ll run in blinkers for the first time. The blinkers actually seem to relax him a little, the opposite of what you’d expect.”

The Eclipse drew a field of seven. Saturday’s supporting feature, the $125,000 Queenston, attracted nine Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.

Queenston Stakes

The seven-furlong Queenston is a prep for the $1 million Queen’s Plate on Sept. 12.

Kentucky-based Halo Again could go favored off his victory in the nine-furlong Coronation Futurity here last November. He went on to finish eighth in the Grade 3 Lecomte at the Fair Grounds and fourth in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway.

Dotted Line completed his 2-year-old campaign with back-to-back Ontario-sired stakes scores in the Frost King and Kingarvie.

Trainer Mike DePaulo entered two good-looking June maiden winners, Golden Wave and Ennis the Menace.

Golden Wave struggled on the dirt at Gulfstream, before landing a seven-furlong maiden special with a 78 Beyer here on the Tapeta.

“I thought that horse was good as I’ve had in a very long time,” DePaulo said. “He never showed up at Gulfstream. I didn’t think there’s a surface he wouldn’t handle, but he didn’t like the dirt.”

Ennis the Menace got an 84 Beyer when taking his five-furlong debut in an Ontario-sired maiden dash.