Pleasecallmeback to switch surfaces for Coronation Futurity

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Roger Attfield is one of three trainers to have won the $225,000 Coronation Futurity five times or more, and he will look for victory number six with Pleasecallmeback on Nov. 23. The Coronation Futurity will be run over 1 1/8-miles on Tapeta for Canadian-bred 2-year-olds and will provide a look at horses who are among the early favorites for next summer’s Queen’s Plate.

Pleasecallmeback has made all four of his starts on the turf. He won his debut by three lengths on July 21, and then stepped up to stakes company, finishing second behind stablemate Mr. Hustle in the Soaring Free Stakes on Aug. 18. He then finished fifth in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes on Sept. 15 before running second again in the Cup and Saucer Stakes on Oct. 6. Despite never having raced on Tapeta, Pleasecallmeback should be able to handle the surface switch given how he’s trained over the main track, Attfield said.

“He’s worked very well on it,” he said. “I think he might be a little bit better on the turf with his action, but he’s certainly worked well enough on the Tapeta.”

Pleasecallmeback finished 1 3/4-lengths behind Muskoka Gold in the Cup and Saucer and earned a career-best 72 Beyer Speed Figure. Attfield said he hadn’t planned to run Pleasecallmeback in the Coronation Futurity, but that the colt emerged from the Cup and Saucer in such good order he changed his mind.

Tiz a Slam to Red Smith

Tiz a Slam had been on track for a start in the Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes on Oct. 12, but a bacterial infection forced him to miss the race. Trainer Roger Attfield said Tiz a Slam appears to be fully recovered from the infection and will point toward the Grade 3, $200,000 Red Smith Handicap on Nov. 23 at Aqueduct.

“It was really unfortunate. He had been training so well up to [the Canadian International],” he said. “He’s just about totally over it, I think. I breezed him a little three-eighths [Sunday] morning to test the water a little bit. I think he’s on the turnaround now.”

Attfield said the Red Smith would be Tiz a Slam’s final start of the year. It’s been a strong campaign for Tiz a Slam, who reeled off three straight graded stakes wins on the turf. The streak began in May in the Grade 3 Louisville Handicap at Churchill Downs, and continued with wins at Woodbine in the Grade 3 Singspiel Stakes and Grade 2 Nijinsky Stakes over the summer.

Attfield said Tiz a Slam will spend the winter at Payson Park Training Center in Indiantown, Fla., and could race down south before returning to Woodbine next season.

“There’s a couple of races in the new year that we’d be aiming at,” he said. “He’ll have a little bit of a break until after Christmas, anyway.”

Are You Kidding Me retired

Two-time Canadian champion Are You Kidding Me has been retired following his fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Seagram Cup Stakes on Aug. 11, trainer Roger Attfield said. The 9-year-old son of Run Away and Hide will now be retrained for a second career, similar to another veteran Attfield runner Tower of Texas, who was retired in 2018.

Are You Kidding Me won the Grade 3 Dominion Day Stakes at Woodbine two starts back on June 30, and Attfield said his main motivation was to retire the horse sound.

“That was our intention, to stop on him when he was still sound and go from there,” he said. “He owes us nothing at all. I could have put him in selling races and he’d be competitive in there for sure. I thought he just lost a little step, and he’s getting up there in age. He’s fit and well and he’s sound enough to go into another life, and that’s what we’re doing with him.”

Are You Kidding Me retires with a career record of 13 wins from 46 starts, with nine of those victories coming in graded stakes. He earned more than $1.6 million. Are You Kidding Me won the Sovereign Award for Canadian champion older male in 2015 and 2016. Over that two-year run, he won six graded stakes from 15 starts.