Pender Harbour seeks first open-company stakes win in Dominion Day

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The popular 7-year-old Pender Harbour exits Ontario-sired stakes company Wednesday at Woodbine to contest the Grade 3, $150,000 Dominion Day.

Pender Harbour has amassed $1.8 million in earnings on the strength of 10 stakes scores, but he has never won an open stakes. He came close in the 2012 Dominion Day, finishing a clear second behind the favored Hunters Bay going 1 1/4 miles.

“He made Hunters Bay run,” trainer Mike De Paulo recalled. “A mile and a quarter is a perfect distance for him.”

Pender Harbour also finished third in the 1 1/4-mile Queen’s Plate in 2011, the year when he was crowned champion 3-year-old in Canada.

Luis Contreras will ride Pender Harbour, who will carry the co-high weight of 126 pounds.

Racing is normally conducted on Wednesday nights at Woodbine, but the Canada Day holiday card will have a 1 p.m. Eastern first post. The nine-race program also features an overnight stakes, the $100,000 Sweet Briar Too.

KEY CONTENDERS

Pender Harbour (Last 3 Beyers: 91-80-83)

◗ He breezed five-eighths in 1:00.20 last Thursday, to De Paulo’s satisfaction.

“He worked well,” De Paulo said. “He seems to be doing real good.”

Midnight Aria (Last 3 Beyers: 89-87-43)

◗ He rode a speed bias to victory in the 2013 Queen’s Plate, after which he got a year off before a five-race campaign in 2014. Following a five-month absence, he finished second in a seven-furlong optional claimer May 22 and then led most of the way June 7 in the Grade 3 Eclipse Stakes before giving way to Are You Kidding Me.

Red Rifle (Last 3 Beyers: 59-106-89)

◗ He was supplemented for $3,000 by trainer Todd Pletcher following a fade job in the two-mile Belmont Gold Cup Invitational on grass. He was previously in good dirt form and has won over Polytrack in the past.

Mystery Train (Last 3 Beyers: 96-75-94)

◗ Off a front-running score in the June 6 Evangeline Mile, he is making his first start for trainer Mark Casse, who also entered Patrioticandproud and Florida Won. Casse has won the Dominion Day three times.

Sweet Briar Too Stakes

Hillaby, last year’s Canadian champion female sprinter, was scratched from Saturday’s Zadracarta Stakes in favor of this seven-furlong event for fillies and mares. Hillaby won four of five outings last year, including the Grade 2 Bessarabian, for which she got a 92 Beyer Speed Figure. She has been idle since that seven-furlong stakes here Nov. 16.

“We have trained her pretty hard for this start, so I believe she will be ready,” Casse said.