Polar opposite contenders

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Stakes winners Sheer Enchantment and See the Wind should be at opposite ends of the field when they travel down the backstretch in Friday's featured sixth race at Woodbine, an $80,000 optional claimer.

Sheer Enchantment figures to be well back in the early stages of the 1o1/16-mile grass race, as See the Wind takes up her customary position near the lead.

Sheer Enchantment wound up fourth in a five-horse field when she came off the sidelines in a July 22 optional claimer, which was moved from the grass to the inner dirt track. That effort set her up beautifully for her next engagement, against Ontario-sired females in the Victoriana Stakes, in which she rallied for second behind Financingavailable, one of the top mares in the country.

Sheer Enchantment defeated males to win her first stakes most recently in the one-mile Halton, in which she came from off a tepid pace to win convincingly.

The Halton, for graduates of local yearling sales, was also the first stakes victory for trainer Paul Attard, who supplemented Sheer Enchantment to the race after she wasn't originally nominated.

"I thought she'd have a shot against the boys," Attard said.

Jono Jones retains the mount, and is 2 for 8 at the meeting when riding for Attard.

See the Wind placed in three stakes last year, including the Breeders' and the Wonder Where. She captured the restricted Ernie Samuel Memorial Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on the Fort Erie turf course on July 16, and was recently third here in the seven-furlong Belle Geste Stakes.

Todd Kabel will ride See the Wind again for trainer Mark Frostad.

"She's improved a lot this year," said Frostad. "She's much easier to handle now. She ran very well at Fort Erie."

Miss Dorothy will likely be winging it up front after breaking from the rail under apprentice Michelle Rainford. She led throughout a $62,500 optional claimer going 1 1/8 miles on the grass Aug. 12, defeating next-out winners Virginia Plain and Princess Avalon.

Silver Impulse was second in the restricted Carotene Stakes the first time she tried the grass last fall. In her lone turf attempt this year in June, she finished a flat fourth in a classified allowance.

Tee Cubed, who earned her first black type when third in the Samuel Memorial, was a well-beaten fourth last time out in the Victoriana.