Paladin Bay sharp for Woodbine Oaks

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – With $569,700 in earnings beside her name, Paladin Bay has come a long way since she was a mere $10,000 yearling purchase, and the newly minted graded stakes winner is the one to knock off in Sunday’s $500,000 Woodbine Oaks.

The 59th running of the Oaks heads an excellent 11-race card that includes another 1 1/8-mile prep for the July 6 Queen’s Plate, the $150,000 Plate Trial. Both stakes will be broadcast on The Sports Network (TSN2) from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Eastern.

The Oaks is the first leg of the Canadian Triple Tiara, a lucrative series for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies. It will be followed by the $250,000 Bison City Stakes here July 13 and will conclude on grass with the $250,000 Wonder Where Stakes here Aug. 10.

Paladin Bay has lost only one of her five two-turn excursions, which was a second to arch rival Lexie Lou in the South Ocean Stakes on Nov. 24. After beginning her 3-year-old campaign with a closing second in the six-furlong Star Shoot Stakes on April 19, she upset My Conquestadory while going long in the Grade 3 Selene, scoring by a nose after a stirring stretch battle with that Grade 1 winner.

“The Selene was one of the most exciting races I’ve ever watched,” said Harold Ladouceur, Paladin Bay’s outspoken trainer. “It was unbelievable. The horse she beat is no slouch. She’s a primo horse.”

Paladin Bay has worked five furlongs twice leading up to the Oaks, which is the race Ladouceur has been targeting all along.

“I couldn’t ask for her to be doing any better,” Ladouceur said. “I feel it when I gallop her. She’s strong. She’s [peaking] at the right time.”

Regular rider Gerry Olguin has the mount on Paladin Bay for owner and groom Jessie Ladouceur, the trainer’s wife.

Trainer Mark Casse entered Wild Catomine and Lexie Lou, who ran first and third while just a half-length apart in the May 10 Fury Stakes. Wild Catomine, a daughter of Milwaukee Brew, is unbeaten in two starts, both traveling seven furlongs.

“She’s continued to do well,” Casse said. “It’s a tough task, asking her to go two turns against the horses that she’s up against, but everything we’ve thrown at her so far, she’s given us the right answers. With her pedigree, I wouldn’t think there’d be a problem with the distance.”

Casse said Lexie Lou is back on track after suffering a setback after the Fury.

“She missed a little time with a bruised foot, and that’s why she went a little while without a work,” Casse said. “We’re quite happy with the way she is now. She breezed super the other day. We’re going to take the blinkers off her.”

Hot and Spicy split the aforementioned Casse fillies while losing the Fury by a half-length in a gutsy display. She is based at Saratoga with trainer James Bond.

Trainer Roger Attfield sends out the talented trio of Llanarmon, Unspurned, and Storm Now.

Llanarmon, who won last year’s Grade 2 Natalma on grass, is coming off a respectable third against older opposition in the allowance prep for the Trillium Stakes.

“I thought it was a really good race,” Attfield said. “I didn’t think she had a great trip. I wanted to put one more race into her before the Oaks, and I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

Unspurned has worked brilliantly since prevailing in her belated season opener in a seven-furlong allowance here May 18.

“She got sick at Keeneland, so she missed a race there,” Attfield said. “I didn’t have any other options but to go straight [into the Oaks] from that one race.”

Storm Now is a Robert S. Evans homebred who is exiting a runner-up placing in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight race at Woodbine.

“The added distance would be a help to her,” Attfield said. “She’s a long filly who could stay all day.”

Rounding out the Oaks field are Gdansk and Call Her Karma, who was supplemented for $12,500.

◗ Casse entered seven of the 12 3-year-old fillies in an overnight stakes Sunday, the $100,000 Alywow, at 6 1/2 furlongs on grass. They are Appreciating, Conquest Whiplash, Lacarolina, Madly Truly, Sky America, Symphony On Ice, and Zensational Bunny. “They all have different stories,” Casse said.