Ontario Colleen is a Selene rematch on turf

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Leading Woodbine trainer Mark Casse entered Souper Hoity Toity, Mrs. Barbara, Join the Dance, and Love to Run in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Ontario Colleen, a one-mile turf route for 3-year-old fillies.

Souper Hoity Toity, Mrs. Barbara, and Join the Dance finished first, third, and fourth, respectively, in the Grade 3 Selene on the Tapeta here July 2.

Join the Dance led the way while being tracked by reigning Canadian champion 2-year-old filly Mrs. Barbara and Souper Hoity Toity going down the backstretch. Souper Hoity Toity, under Patrick Husbands, collared Join the Dance at the eighth pole before holding off the favored Catiche.

“When we left the gate, [Catiche] missed the break,” Husbands said. “Nobody wanted the lead, and my horse was a little bit rank with me. Everybody had to fight for position on the first turn, and then I turned mine loose.”

Souper Hoity Toity, who made her season debut with Lasix added in the Selene, earned her diploma over a mile on the main turf here in October. She will break from post 8 in the 10-horse field.

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Mrs. Barbara is winless in four turf starts, but all four of those races were pretty good, including fourth-place finishes in the Grade 1 Natalma and Grade 3 Florida Oaks.

Join the Dance could set the pace again in her turf debut. She’s by the 11 percent turf sire Shackleford and her dam produced a grass winner.

Love to Run is exiting a troubled ninth-place finish in an allowance/optional claimer at Saratoga.

Ladywearsthering has the look of a contender. Trainer Gail Cox bypassed the Woodbine Oaks with her after her decisive first-out maiden score traveling a mile on the main course here July 2.

“We thought she was very nice, but it was really impressive,” said Cox. “Hopefully, she can move forward from her race and step up against tougher company. She’s doing very well leading up to this race. I felt to ask her to run in the Woodbine Oaks on July 24 would have been too much, just three weeks after her first start. She hadn’t run on the Tapeta and she hadn’t gone two turns, so I didn’t think it was the fair thing to do to her.”

Vergara ships in from the Fair Hill training center in Maryland off a front-running fourth in the Grade 2 Wonder Again at Belmont. The highlight of her six-race career was a victory in the Tepin Stakes in November at Aqueduct.

Ephrata is adding Lasix off a flat sixth in the Selene. The English import was a runaway maiden winner on the Tapeta here in her first start on this side of the pond May 15, after which she wound up fourth in an allowance on the inner turf.

Completing the field are Ready Lady, Amazin Queen, and Guileful.