Paramount Prince figures tough to run down in Durham Cup

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Paramount Prince will be a short-priced favorite from the outside post 5 in Saturday’s Grade 3, $135,000 Durham Cup at Woodbine. Can anyone catch him in the 1 1/16-mile Tapeta route? Probably not.

The 2023 Canadian champion male 3-year-old and King’s Plate winner, Paramount Prince has been a front-running tour de force under Patrick Husbands, who has combined with trainer Mark Casse for 15 stakes wins at the meet.

Paramount Prince has won 3 of 4 starts this year. He began his campaign with an allowance score in March at Gulfstream and then finished a close third after a stalking trip near stablemate Get Smokin here June 1 in the Eclipse, a Grade 2 stakes won by Palazzi.

Paramount Prince secured an easy lead and never looked back in each of his last two outings, in the Grade 3 Dominion Day and Grade 2 Seagram Cup. The Beyer Speed Figures of 94 and 95 that he earned in those two events were the highest of his career, during which he has won half of his 12 starts while banking $1.1 million.

Casse entered and scratched Paramount Prince from the $100,000 Niagara Stakes going 1 1/4 miles here Sept. 7 because he wasn’t keen on running him on the grass. The son of Society’s Chairman was softened up in a speed duel before tiring to finish 13th in his lone turf outing going 1 1/2 miles in the 2023 Breeders’ Stakes, the anchor leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.

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Paramount Prince is owned by Gary Barber and Michael Langlois, the same partnership that owns his stakes-winning 2-year-old half-sister, Souper Supreme. Both were bred by Ericka Rusnak.

Stanley House has chased Paramount Prince during a good portion of his 14-race career and should be the main threat Saturday. He ran third in the King’s Plate and was seventh with an excuse in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie, while Paramount Prince weakened to third.

This year, Stanley House wound up second in both the Dominion Day and the Seagram Cup. The Mike DePaulo-trained colt rallied from fourth for second most recently when making his turf debut in the Niagara.

“He’s doing real good,” DePaulo said. “I wish I had a little more time, because it’s back a little quick for him, but he’s a big, strong horse and he’s only run four times this year.”

Completing the field are Rapid Test, Dresden Row, and the supplement Ron’s Gizmo.

Rapid Test, a restricted stakes winner last year at 3, ended a slump when beating conditioned allowance/optional-claiming rivals at 58-1 on the inner turf Aug. 23.

“I was most impressed with Rapid Test’s determination to win in his last race,” trainer Catherine Day Phillips said. “He has always trained like a good horse. Until his last race, he was having trouble putting it together in the afternoons this year.”

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