One Bad Boy staying at Woodbine, being pointed to Prince of Wales

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Queen’s Plate winner One Bad Boy will remain in Canada and run in the $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie on July 23, according to trainer Richard Baltas.

The Prince of Wales Stakes, run over 1 3/16 miles on Fort Erie’s dirt track, is the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown.

Baltas said One Bad Boy came out of the Queen’s Plate in good order and will stay at Woodbine to train ahead of the Prince of Wales Stakes. Baltas said his assistant Filipe Rivera will stay with One Bad Boy at Woodbine. Baltas said he wasn’t sure if One Bad Boy will breeze at Fort Erie before the race.

Baltas said one factor that went into the decision to run in the Prince of Wales is the new $500,000 bonus that is being offered to the winner of the Canadian Triple Crown. Woodbine announced the bonus in June in conjunction with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, which is the title sponsor of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown.

“I was thinking of bringing him home, but I weighed out all of the options,” Baltas said.

“I think this is probably the hardest one. I know he can run on the dirt but I don’t know if he’s a graded stakes horse on the dirt or not.”

One Bad Boy does have experience over the dirt. He finished third on dirt at Santa Anita on Dec. 26 in his debut and then was second to Omaha Beach over a sloppy surface Feb. 2.

◗ Following the Queen’s Plate, bloodstock agent Brooke Hubbard, one of the owners of One Bad Boy, recalled buying the Queen’s Plate winner for $65,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September yearling sale.

Hubbard had purchased One Bad Boy’s half-sister Ms Bad Behavior for $75,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale. Ms Bad Behavior went on to win the China Doll Stakes and has placed in five graded stakes, but she had raced only twice in her career before Hubbard purchased One Bad Boy. Both horses are out of the Stormy Atlantic mare Cumulonimble, who had a productive 20-race career, recording eight wins and placing in multiple stakes.

Hubbard said he could tell Ms Bad Behavior had talent while working ahead of her first start and she had finished second and third in maiden special weight races at Del Mar when Hubbard bought One Bad Boy at the Keeneland sale.

“She was at San Luis Rey Downs and she just blew away anything that she worked with,” Hubbard said. “We had a good idea that she was a nice horse.

“He’s by Twirling Candy, which I was liking at the time. He had a great walk and he looked the part. We got lucky.”

◗ Woodbine generated handle of $18,006,061 during the 13-race Queen’s Plate Day card, smashing last year’s previous record of $14,625,756 by 23.1 percent. Handle on the Queen’s Plate itself was $4,620,092, which was also a record. Woodbine reported ontrack handle growth of 14 percent.