Points of Grace preps for Canadian

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Points of Grace, the reigning Canadian champion female on turf, will take center stage Friday at Woodbine in the $91,100 prep for the Grade 2 Canadian Stakes. The classified allowance is scheduled for a mile on the grass.

Points of Grace had a breakout 2009 season for trainer Malcolm Pierce, during which she won 5 of 9 starts and $404,030. She captured the Grade 2 Dance Smartly Stakes and the River Memories Stakes during that campaign, and was beaten only three lengths when a troubled fifth in the Grade 1 Beverly D. at Arlington.

Points of Grace has competed just twice year, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 94 on each occasion. Following a seven-month layoff June 5, she finished fourth after setting the pace in the Grade 2 Nassau Stakes, from which Miss Keller exited to take the De La Rose Stakes at Saratoga.

Last time out in the nine-furlong Dance Smartly, Points of Grace lacked room in midstretch and had to alter course before ending up a length back in third.

Among the opponents for Points of Grade is Bedarra, who failed to threaten in her belated season opener in an optional claimer on the Polytrack July 17. She won a seven-furlong optional claimer by three lengths when trainer Sid Attard moved her over to the grass most recently.

Attard lost Bedarra from a win for $50,000 in August of last year, but then claimed her back 2 1/2 weeks later for $62,500. She was a wide fifth in her only one-mile turf start, which came at Ellis Park in her second start as a 2-year-old.

Internallyflawless’s 15 minutes of fame came last August, when she captured the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks over nine furlongs for trainer Bob Baffert. She was a non-factor in a pair of graded stakes in the fall at Santa Anita before going to the sidelines.

Internallyflawless resurfaced with trainer Roger Attfield here Aug. 2, when she finished fifth in Bedarra’s victory, a race she seemingly needed. She has since worked five-eighths around the cones over the turf training course in 59.80.

Avie’s Tale is coming off a lackluster sixth-place finish in a difficult third-level allowance/optional claimer won by Impossible Time, who subsequently doubled up in the Victoriana Stakes. Runner-up Sugar Bay returned to win at the same level.

Rounding out the field is Deeveetee, who has been in dull form since a narrow loss in her second race of the year.