Ontario Sired Heritage winners return for second leg of series

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Live Lucky and Little Teddy will try to continue their winning ways in their respective second legs of the Ontario Sired Heritage Series on Sunday at Woodbine. The races are six-furlong sprints on the main turf.

The unbeaten Live Lucky will be favored with Lasix added in the $100,000 Lake Superior Stakes for Ontario-sired male sophomores. He won a pair of five-furlong inner-turf dashes using different running styles, taking the opening race of this series most recently in front-running style under Rafael Hernandez in the Lake Huron Stakes.

“He showed some promise in the mornings before he won,” trainer Kevin Attard said. “I actually expected him to show more speed that day, but I think he was a little bit nervous. [Last time] with the pony, he was more settled. I think it’s just maturity on his end.”

Attard also entered Zippy Gizmo, who is winless in four starts since landing his second race in a row on the main course in the Sept. 24 Bull Page Stakes.

Stretch-running Little Teddy is taking a two-race win streak into the $100,000 Thunder Bay Stakes for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies.

Trained by Santino DiPaola, Little Teddy won her first turf start in first leg in the Georgian Bay, a five-furlong inner-turf stakes where she caught the favored Olivia Rose in the final strides.

“I know everybody thinks stretching out, it could favor Olivia Rose, but I think it favors my filly as well,” DiPaola said. “The shortest I was running her was six and a half and I was worried about the five-eighths. She missed the break, circled the field widest of all, and ran by them. You can’t take anything away from that performance.”

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Leading rider Sahin Civaci takes over from the departed Kazushi Kimura on Little Teddy.

“She’s trained really well in the interim,” DiPaola noted. “She hasn’t lost a pound. She’s actually thickened up. She’s guns a blazing, ready to go.”

DiPaola opted for this series for Little Teddy rather than the July 20 Woodbine Oaks and the subsequent legs of the Canadian Triple Tiara.

“I ran out of time to stretch her out for the Oaks,” DiPaola said. “I thought she would have fit in the Oaks, but when there’s an OS [Ontario-sired] series like this, you don’t want to miss it.”

Olivia Rose could be the odds-on choice again. She earned a big 86 Beyer Speed Figure when romping in her penultimate race in the seven-furlong Fury Stakes on the Tapeta. She wound up second in both of her main turf starts, against maidens and behind War Painter in the six-furlong Victorian Queen Stakes in September.

Hernandez retains the mount on Olivia Rose for trainer Mark Casse.

Good layoff trainer Attard sends out Vandoo, who has been idle since beating Little Teddy when second in the Dec. 2 Shady Well Stakes.

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