Outlaw Kid back for more in Vice Regent
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The $150,000 Vice Regent Stakes wouldn’t be the same without the Saratoga-based Outlaw Kid, who won the five-furlong inner turf dash in 2023-24. The stretch-runner meets six other Ontario-breds in Sunday’s renewal of the race at Woodbine and should go favored under Sahin Civaci.
Trained by George Weaver, Outlaw Kid was the 4-5 favorite in the 2025 Vice Regent, during which he had major traffic problems along the inside before finishing a lapped-on fourth. The 7-year-old has been as good as ever this year, launching his season with a victory April 18 in the King T. Leatherbury Stakes at Laurel.
Outlaw Kid lost the May 16 Jim McKay Turf Sprint Stakes at Laurel by a nose to Chasing Liberty, who had a dream run along the inside. In the Grade 2 Highlander here June 27, the son of Violence dead-heated for third with G T Five Hundred, who came back to take the Grade 2 Connaught Cup with a 95 Beyer Speed Figure.
If the Vice Regent field remains intact, Outlaw Kid has ample speed to close into. Front-runner Poulin in O T was cross-entered in Saturday’s Grade 3 Bold Venture. His absence would leave two speed-oriented runners left – longshot Mister Blue and the venerable Artemus Citylimits.
Artemus Citylimits won last year’s Vice Regent when conditioned by Marty Drexler. Former Drexler assistant Audrey Cheung trains the 9-year-old now and sent him out to win a recent allowance/optional claimer on the inner turf where he competed for the $32,000 tag.
Dark Screen, Light the Lamp, and Cost of War round out the Vice Regent lineup.
Dark Screen has evolved into a five-furlong inner turf expert for trainer Beverley Chubb. The highlight of his career was a victory over Ontario-sired 3-year-olds last summer in the six-furlong Lake Superior Stakes on the main turf. He won a five-furlong allowance/optional claimer over an inner course labeled good on Nov. 2.
Dark Screen’s first two starts this year on the Tapeta included a respectable third in a conditioned allowance/optional claimer. He ran evenly when fifth in a 7 1/2-furlong inner turf event around two turns June 28. He finished a close second most recently going five furlongs on the inner while attempting to clear the second allowance condition.
Light the Lamp had a productive 2025 campaign, during which he captured two legs of the Woodbine Turf Sprint Series, a glorified starter/optional-claiming series. He was a close third behind the next-out winners Piper’s Factor and Go Kart Mozart in his May 10 season opener and was a non-threatening sixth behind Poulin in O T most recently in the restricted Pink Lloyd Stakes, another Tapeta sprint.
Cost of War, a lightly-raced 4-year-old with no turf experience, was supplemented by trainer Mark Casse off a three-length score in a nonwinners-of-two allowance on the Tapeta. The son of 11 percent turf sprint sire War of Will is out of an unraced mare who has not produced a grass winner.
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