Patches O'Houlihan takes aim at year-end awards in Kennedy Road

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Patches O’Houlihan will try to put an exclamation point on a perfect season in Saturday’s Grade 2 Kennedy Road at Woodbine and should be well-backed in the six-furlong sprint.

A once-beaten 3-year-old trained by Robert Tiller, Patches O’Houlihan came up empty in his second race at 2 in the Bull Page Stakes, after which he went to the sidelines for eight months. The son of Reload won all six of his starts this year, including a pair of Grade 3 stakes over older rivals in his last two outings, the Bold Venture and Vigil.

“If he doesn’t get more awards than [champion male] sprinter, I’ll be very surprised,” Tiller said. “He’s shown tremendous gameness in his races. He’s a fighter, a street fighter. He doesn’t give up. The only time he did was when he hurt himself in the Bull Page last year and finished sixth. He had an issue after the race that we had to take care of.”

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Patches O’Houlihan breezed a half-mile in a bullet 47.80 seconds in company with Perfect Forest on Nov. 9.

“He’s doing very good right now,” Tiller stressed. “He’s as good as I have ever seen him.”

Tiller has won the Kennedy Road a record six times, including three times with five-time Canadian champion sprinter Pink Lloyd. Daisuke Fukumoto will ride the Frank DiGiulio Jr. homebred, who’s drawn outside the other speed in post 9.

The $175,000 Kennedy Road attracted a field of 10 that also includes Dream Shake, Ice Chocolat, Rockcrest, War Bomber, and Ironstone.

Based in Maryland with trainer Mike Stidham, Dream Shake has the required minimum three starts in Canada this year for Sovereign Award consideration. He won a seven-furlong allowance here July 2 and then doubled up when switching to the turf in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup. The 5-year-old is coming off a close fifth as part of blanket finish over yielding turf in the Grade 2 Nearctic.

Ice Chocolat contested three Grade 1 events this year and was beaten just a neck when third in the Oct. 8 Nearctic. He finished second to his Mark Casse-trained stablemate Candy Overload in the 2022 Kennedy Road.

Rockcrest got a 97 Beyer Speed Figure in his front-running win in the restricted Pink Lloyd Stakes in June. He endured a heartbreaking loss two back in the Nearctic, during which he came wide from third to assume command in midstretch before getting swamped late. When the smoke cleared, he finished just a half-length behind victorious Big Invasion in sixth.

War Bomber has been all over the map this year. He peaked in August when taking the Grade 2 King Edward before ending up fourth behind Master of The Seas in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile. He subsequently finished eighth in the Nearctic and sixth in the Grade 2 Autumn on the Tapeta.

Victorious in last year’s Grade 3 Ontario Derby, Ironstone went to the sidelines after two lackluster performances in the spring and has not worked extensively leading up to this tough assignment.

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