Perfect Soul tunes up for Atto

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Perfect Soul, one of the leading candidates for Sunday's Grade 1 Atto Mile, breezed four furlongs in 48.60 seconds on the E.P. Taylor turf course here Wednesday. With the filly First Quarter almost certain to instead run in Sunday's $250,000 Canadian Handicap, a 1 1/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares, a field of 11 was expected to pass the entry box Thursday for the Atto Mile.

Exercise rider Paul O'Sullivan was in the irons as Perfect Soul worked in the middle of a firm course, on which the rail was well out and the "dogs" up.

"We wanted a sharp half into him, and that's what we got," said Rachel Halden, assistant to Perfect Soul's trainer, Roger Attfield, who was at the Keeneland sales. "We're sitting on go."

Perfect Soul, a 5-year-old horse owned and bred by Charles Fipke, will be cutting back in distance after finishing a close fifth in the Grade 1 Arlington Million over 1 1/4 miles of turf on Aug. 16.

Jose Santos will be in the irons for the first time Sunday.

Wake at Noon is as good as he gets

Two other locally based Atto Mile candidates, Wake at Noon and Chopinina, galloped around the 1 1/2-mile E.P. Taylor turf course Wednesday morning.

Wake at Noon was ridden by Ray Sabourin, subbing for the injured Emile Ramsammy, who is expected to return this weekend.

A 6-year-old horse owned and bred by Bruno Schickedanz and trained by Abraham Katryan, Wake at Noon is coming off back-to-back stakes wins here at 1 1/16 miles, the first two-turn victories of his career.

But Wake at Noon has been unplaced in two career turf outings, including the 2001 Atto Mile, which came just eight days after he had run in Saratoga's Grade 1 Forego.

"He's the best he's been going into a turf race," said Katryan. "I would say, going a distance, he's as good as I can ever get him. There's no excuse."

Exercise rider Maurice Gear was aboard Chopinina, a 5-year-old mare owned by Knob Hill Stable and trained by Alec Fehr who ran second at 55-1 in last year's Atto Mile.

Chopinina will have a new rider Sunday, Richard Dos Ramos.

Freefourinternet gets ready

Freefourinternet had his final Atto Mile prep Wednesday at the High Point Farm and Training Center in La Grange, Ky., breezing four furlongs in 48.60.

Freefourinternet is coming off a second-place finish in the Grade 2 Firecracker over a mile of turf at Churchill Downs July 5.

Robby Albarado will ride Freefourinternet in the Atto.